using an electronic cigarette and a
cigarette or vaping in the past year
everyone okay so it seems like every
week in the news there’s a new story
about e-cigarettes and vaping now vaping
which is the act of inhaling a vapor
that usually contains nicotine has many
friends many many supporters many
enemies and opponents and there’s a lot
of people who are somewhere in the
middle and don’t really know what to
think about it so today I’m going to
talk about vaping as an innovation a
disruptive technology that if used by
the right people and only the right
people can ultimately benefit public
health by reducing the death and disease
caused by cigarette smoking so what is
it disruptive technology well it’s
something that unexpectedly comes in and
makes an existing technology obsolete so
we don’t see too many blockbuster rental
video stores anymore after Netflix came
in and kind of knocked it off course and
disrupted it a lot of people think that
taxicabs one day will be replaced by
technologies like uber so what if there
were a disruptive technology some type
of innovation that can make cigarette
smoking obsolete
this has been the dream for decades to
drive the smoking rate down to zero so
today I’m going to talk about how in my
opinion vaping could be that innovation
if used by the right people so we’ve
known this is no surprise to you we’ve
known for over 50 years how deadly
cigarette smoking is and in 1964 the US
Surgeon General published this really
pivotal report in which the US
government formally stated for the first
time that cigarettes cause cancer and
many many other diseases it’s the only
product that if you use exactly as
directed will probably kill you right
and the good news is that since 1964
when about 42% of Americans were smokers
almost half of Americans were smoking
men current rates are now down to about
17% and this is great news and this is
because of things like educational
campaigns to prevent smoking among young
people policy changes like smoke-free
air laws and increases in taxes on
cigarettes and all of that stuff should
continue because it’s
really working but at the same time 17%
of Americans are still smokers that’s 55
million people despite knowing for 50
years how deadly it is so even though
we’ve made a ton of progress I don’t
think we’ve made enough perhaps most
troubling is that smoking rates are
highest among populations that
historically have been disadvantaged or
discriminated against or experienced or
experienced hardships so people with low
levels of education low income certain
racial and ethnic minorities LGBT
Americans people with with disabilities
whether it’s physical or mental war
veterans all of these groups have
elevated rates of smoking now it’s hard
for anyone to quit smoking nicotine is
unbelievably addictive but it’s even
harder for people who experience daily
life stressors who have worse access to
healthcare who who have less resources
available to help them quit nicotine is
unbelievably addictive but what most
people don’t realize is that nicotine
itself is not deadly at all nicotine
does not cause cancer nicotine does not
cause lung disease it does not cause
heart disease all it is is addictive
so it keeps you addicted to all the
horrible stuff that cigarettes have and
this is the principle behind many many
therapies that help smokers quit like
like the nicotine I’m sorry the
nicorette gum or the nicotine patch they
deliver a cleaner form of nicotine to
satisfy the addiction but they don’t
deliver all those other harmful
chemicals the problem with these
therapies is that no one likes to use
them they’re effective they’re pretty
effective but no one likes to use them
so what if there were a technology and
innovation that could deliver a cleaner
form of nicotine and that smokers were
receptive to using enter vaping so in a
newly released report that was sponsored
and commissioned by the UK government
the authors concluded that vaping is
undeniably less risky than smoking and
they start off by saying it is not safe
and it’s not theirs exposures there’s
chemicals exposures there are detectable
levels of carcinogens in vaping products
so it is not safe
any means but compared to smoking which
is the worst thing you could possibly do
vaping is substantially less risky and
they ultimately concluded that if you
have smokers who have tried and tried to
quit and keep failing or if you have
smokers that just don’t want to quit
have no interest encouraging those
groups and only those groups to switch
to a vaping product could ultimately
reduce the risk of death and disease
so now vape interest in vaping is just
at an all-time high since 2010 when the
first isse cigarettes entered the market
google searches of the word vape have
increased exponentially and in 2014
oxford dictionary named vape its word of
the year
number two was BAE you know like your
significant other your BAE so we’re in
this vaping craze right now and amid
this vaping craze I started to notice as
I was driving around my neighborhood and
actually as I was driving into a
Blairstown
today I saw I’ve been seeing vape shops
popping up left and right it seems like
in every vacant storefront
there are vape shops popping up so this
has been the focus of my research over
the past year where are these vape shops
popping up because we know that there
are way more cigarette retailers in
places that have high poverty that have
a lot of racial and ethnic minorities
but no one really knows where the vape
shops are popping up so I located every
single one in New Jersey and you could
see that from 2011 until now the number
of vape shops in New Jersey has grown so
so quickly and now there are over 130 in
the state and this is as of as of July
of 2015 so I’m sure there are many many
more now so where are they located as it
turns out as the number of cigarette
retailers increases it becomes more and
more likely that you’ll find a vape shop
and this shouldn’t be surprising to
anyone because these retailers are
looking to attract smokers who want to
quit right so no surprises here but this
is where it gets interesting vape shops
are located in predominantly white
neighborhoods that have very low numbers
of black and Hispanic residents so as
the number of racial and ethnic
minorities increases it becomes less and
less and less likely that you’re going
find a vape shop or vapor retailers and
for me this is this is troubling this is
potentially problematic because we know
that vaping is less risky than smoking
we also know that african-americans in
particular historically have the most
difficulty quitting they have the least
amount of success quitting we also know
that racial minorities in general
experience social and economic hardships
at higher levels in the general
population so right now and we know this
from national data right now the smokers
who are benefitting by switching to a
vaping product are white smokers so my
worry is that this difference in access
to a less risky product and difference
in utilization rates can ultimately be
worsening existing health inequalities
now vaping is at the center of this
really intense debate for a good reason
it’s very controversial so there are
undeniably benefits as I’ve discussed
but there are also serious concerns
risks that really concern me so on one
hand vaping may one day eliminate
tobacco use this is the goal it could be
that disruptive technology that we’re
looking for to drive down rates of
smoking and ultimately eliminate it but
many people argue well there are people
who would have quit completely but now
you’re giving them another option to
just maintain their nicotine addiction
vaping it can be seen as a form of harm
reduction so yes even though people are
getting exposures they may still be
addicted to nicotine they’re reducing
their own risk of disease greatly by
switching through this product but these
are new products the first ones entered
the market around 2010 so we haven’t
done those long-term studies necessary
to determine the the long-term health
effects vaping does not produce smoke
there’s no burning of tobacco so so
whenever you’re not burning something
you’re not releasing all of those
carcinogens associated with that
combustion so there’s no secondhand
smoke which not only is reducing the
users risk of disease but potentially
reducing the risk of disease for people
around them like children of smokers for
example but speaking of children these
cigarettes and vaping products appeal to
youth we know this we’ve seen the
numbers climbing
and this is to me this is very troubling
because as I said in the beginning
there’s there’s a certain groups of
people who would benefit from this it’s
not youth who may never have tried
smoking but want to try vaping because
it’s cool and it comes in flavors then
they may develop a nicotine addiction
and who knows switch over to an even
more risky product like cigarettes or
cigars so so this is very troubling and
and this debate will certainly continue
for for years to come
in my view the best case scenario would
be for every single smoker to just quit
completely no nicotine at all that’s the
best case scenario and when friends or
family ask me what they should do that’s
the first thing I tell them use every
method available to you to try to quit
but as we’ve seen that is not an easy
feat because 17% of Americans that’s one
in five almost one in five Americans are
still smoking despite knowing how bad it
is for you so for those people who have
extreme difficulty quitting or who have
no interest in quitting switching to
vaping could potentially improve their
health and improve public health and I
want to conclude with a cautionary note
that any innovation innovation is the
theme of today’s talks any innovation
not just vaping can only benefit society
and lead to widespread societal change
if it’s accessible and utilized by the
entire population not just select
privileged groups thank you very much
[Applause]
cigarette or vaping in the past year
everyone okay so it seems like every
week in the news there’s a new story
about e-cigarettes and vaping now vaping
which is the act of inhaling a vapor
that usually contains nicotine has many
friends many many supporters many
enemies and opponents and there’s a lot
of people who are somewhere in the
middle and don’t really know what to
think about it so today I’m going to
talk about vaping as an innovation a
disruptive technology that if used by
the right people and only the right
people can ultimately benefit public
health by reducing the death and disease
caused by cigarette smoking so what is
it disruptive technology well it’s
something that unexpectedly comes in and
makes an existing technology obsolete so
we don’t see too many blockbuster rental
video stores anymore after Netflix came
in and kind of knocked it off course and
disrupted it a lot of people think that
taxicabs one day will be replaced by
technologies like uber so what if there
were a disruptive technology some type
of innovation that can make cigarette
smoking obsolete
this has been the dream for decades to
drive the smoking rate down to zero so
today I’m going to talk about how in my
opinion vaping could be that innovation
if used by the right people so we’ve
known this is no surprise to you we’ve
known for over 50 years how deadly
cigarette smoking is and in 1964 the US
Surgeon General published this really
pivotal report in which the US
government formally stated for the first
time that cigarettes cause cancer and
many many other diseases it’s the only
product that if you use exactly as
directed will probably kill you right
and the good news is that since 1964
when about 42% of Americans were smokers
almost half of Americans were smoking
men current rates are now down to about
17% and this is great news and this is
because of things like educational
campaigns to prevent smoking among young
people policy changes like smoke-free
air laws and increases in taxes on
cigarettes and all of that stuff should
continue because it’s
really working but at the same time 17%
of Americans are still smokers that’s 55
million people despite knowing for 50
years how deadly it is so even though
we’ve made a ton of progress I don’t
think we’ve made enough perhaps most
troubling is that smoking rates are
highest among populations that
historically have been disadvantaged or
discriminated against or experienced or
experienced hardships so people with low
levels of education low income certain
racial and ethnic minorities LGBT
Americans people with with disabilities
whether it’s physical or mental war
veterans all of these groups have
elevated rates of smoking now it’s hard
for anyone to quit smoking nicotine is
unbelievably addictive but it’s even
harder for people who experience daily
life stressors who have worse access to
healthcare who who have less resources
available to help them quit nicotine is
unbelievably addictive but what most
people don’t realize is that nicotine
itself is not deadly at all nicotine
does not cause cancer nicotine does not
cause lung disease it does not cause
heart disease all it is is addictive
so it keeps you addicted to all the
horrible stuff that cigarettes have and
this is the principle behind many many
therapies that help smokers quit like
like the nicotine I’m sorry the
nicorette gum or the nicotine patch they
deliver a cleaner form of nicotine to
satisfy the addiction but they don’t
deliver all those other harmful
chemicals the problem with these
therapies is that no one likes to use
them they’re effective they’re pretty
effective but no one likes to use them
so what if there were a technology and
innovation that could deliver a cleaner
form of nicotine and that smokers were
receptive to using enter vaping so in a
newly released report that was sponsored
and commissioned by the UK government
the authors concluded that vaping is
undeniably less risky than smoking and
they start off by saying it is not safe
and it’s not theirs exposures there’s
chemicals exposures there are detectable
levels of carcinogens in vaping products
so it is not safe
any means but compared to smoking which
is the worst thing you could possibly do
vaping is substantially less risky and
they ultimately concluded that if you
have smokers who have tried and tried to
quit and keep failing or if you have
smokers that just don’t want to quit
have no interest encouraging those
groups and only those groups to switch
to a vaping product could ultimately
reduce the risk of death and disease
so now vape interest in vaping is just
at an all-time high since 2010 when the
first isse cigarettes entered the market
google searches of the word vape have
increased exponentially and in 2014
oxford dictionary named vape its word of
the year
number two was BAE you know like your
significant other your BAE so we’re in
this vaping craze right now and amid
this vaping craze I started to notice as
I was driving around my neighborhood and
actually as I was driving into a
Blairstown
today I saw I’ve been seeing vape shops
popping up left and right it seems like
in every vacant storefront
there are vape shops popping up so this
has been the focus of my research over
the past year where are these vape shops
popping up because we know that there
are way more cigarette retailers in
places that have high poverty that have
a lot of racial and ethnic minorities
but no one really knows where the vape
shops are popping up so I located every
single one in New Jersey and you could
see that from 2011 until now the number
of vape shops in New Jersey has grown so
so quickly and now there are over 130 in
the state and this is as of as of July
of 2015 so I’m sure there are many many
more now so where are they located as it
turns out as the number of cigarette
retailers increases it becomes more and
more likely that you’ll find a vape shop
and this shouldn’t be surprising to
anyone because these retailers are
looking to attract smokers who want to
quit right so no surprises here but this
is where it gets interesting vape shops
are located in predominantly white
neighborhoods that have very low numbers
of black and Hispanic residents so as
the number of racial and ethnic
minorities increases it becomes less and
less and less likely that you’re going
find a vape shop or vapor retailers and
for me this is this is troubling this is
potentially problematic because we know
that vaping is less risky than smoking
we also know that african-americans in
particular historically have the most
difficulty quitting they have the least
amount of success quitting we also know
that racial minorities in general
experience social and economic hardships
at higher levels in the general
population so right now and we know this
from national data right now the smokers
who are benefitting by switching to a
vaping product are white smokers so my
worry is that this difference in access
to a less risky product and difference
in utilization rates can ultimately be
worsening existing health inequalities
now vaping is at the center of this
really intense debate for a good reason
it’s very controversial so there are
undeniably benefits as I’ve discussed
but there are also serious concerns
risks that really concern me so on one
hand vaping may one day eliminate
tobacco use this is the goal it could be
that disruptive technology that we’re
looking for to drive down rates of
smoking and ultimately eliminate it but
many people argue well there are people
who would have quit completely but now
you’re giving them another option to
just maintain their nicotine addiction
vaping it can be seen as a form of harm
reduction so yes even though people are
getting exposures they may still be
addicted to nicotine they’re reducing
their own risk of disease greatly by
switching through this product but these
are new products the first ones entered
the market around 2010 so we haven’t
done those long-term studies necessary
to determine the the long-term health
effects vaping does not produce smoke
there’s no burning of tobacco so so
whenever you’re not burning something
you’re not releasing all of those
carcinogens associated with that
combustion so there’s no secondhand
smoke which not only is reducing the
users risk of disease but potentially
reducing the risk of disease for people
around them like children of smokers for
example but speaking of children these
cigarettes and vaping products appeal to
youth we know this we’ve seen the
numbers climbing
and this is to me this is very troubling
because as I said in the beginning
there’s there’s a certain groups of
people who would benefit from this it’s
not youth who may never have tried
smoking but want to try vaping because
it’s cool and it comes in flavors then
they may develop a nicotine addiction
and who knows switch over to an even
more risky product like cigarettes or
cigars so so this is very troubling and
and this debate will certainly continue
for for years to come
in my view the best case scenario would
be for every single smoker to just quit
completely no nicotine at all that’s the
best case scenario and when friends or
family ask me what they should do that’s
the first thing I tell them use every
method available to you to try to quit
but as we’ve seen that is not an easy
feat because 17% of Americans that’s one
in five almost one in five Americans are
still smoking despite knowing how bad it
is for you so for those people who have
extreme difficulty quitting or who have
no interest in quitting switching to
vaping could potentially improve their
health and improve public health and I
want to conclude with a cautionary note
that any innovation innovation is the
theme of today’s talks any innovation
not just vaping can only benefit society
and lead to widespread societal change
if it’s accessible and utilized by the
entire population not just select
privileged groups thank you very much
[Applause]
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