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E-CIGARETTES – GOOD OR bad?
Viewing vaping as an alternative to cigarettes has had quite a bit of success in 2016. But there’s also been quite a bit of back and forth over whether they’re actually a safer option for those wanting to quit smoking.
The battery-powered devices heat a liquid containing nicotine into a vapor that is inhaled, removing a lot of chemicals and tar that cause so many health problems.
Action on Smoking and Health Ireland (Ash) recently came out against vaping as a solution, saying that quitters should use patches or gum instead.
“Some people say they do help them but we don’t think that the evidence is strong enough for us to support them and there are concerns about their longterm safety,” Dr Pat Doorley of Ash told the Sunday Independent.
Gillian Golden, administrator of Irish Vape Vendors Association, said that they were disappointed that Ash don’t want smokers to switch to e-cigarettes, saying that the decision was based on “ideological positions that are not in step with current evidence”.
Several other international bodies, most notably the World Health Organisation, have also discouraged use of vaping products and recommended that smokers who are looking to quit instead stick to alternative nicotine replacements such as patches, lozenges and gums.
A very recent study published just before Christmas tested the effects of two varieties of e-cigarette vapour on gum cells and found that those exposed to the vapour (rather than just air) showed greater effects of inflammation and harm.
Popular with the public
Although the long term health risks associated with e-cigarettes isn’t known because they haven’t been around long enough to test, a report by the Royal College of Physicians suggested that the negative effects are unlikely to exceed 5% of those associated with smoked tobacco products, and may well be substantially lower than that.
A study in September suggested that e-cigarettes helped some 18,000 smokers in England kick the tobacco habit in 2015.
The survey-based study was not a clinical trial, which means the link between vaping and the number of people who quit smoking is not set in stone, but it does hint at the positive perception and public acceptance of e-cigarettes.
That popularity is also part of the worry – about one in six US high school students say they have used e-cigarettes in the past month, and there are fears that instead of encouraging young people to quit, it’s will be the cause of their addiction.
The government is considering restricting the sale of e-cigarettes in Ireland, which, according to Vape Business Ireland would mean “that vaping products would no longer be a viable alternative to smoking”.
So before you decide to vape, make sure you’re aware of the negatives as well as the positives and all the many unknowns that are involved with e-cigarettes.
With reporting from AFP and Fora
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Seperate them, allow them to do their own biding and not be controlled by Dublin. Is it that hard to understand?
They wouldn’t last a year without Dublin airport money
Its time to shut down these Taxpayer Moneypit White Elephants.
That mean Spruiker that the rsst of us should drive to Dublin for a flight?
O ‘Leary has repeatedly said drop the tourism tax and he would put aircraft back in cork and Shannon bases. Aer Lingus would also increase their services there. The money is always spent in Dublin, for everything. The west and south of the country is repeatedly neglected for all services. Then Leo acts surprised when they don’t turn a profit. He needs a kick up the hole this guy. Ranting and raving about things that HE should be, and could be, fixing!
I could only give this one thumbs up. Well said.
would they ever just do and stop talking about it?
Be lazy be happy:)
Shannon is a great airport. Carpark close to the terminal, little or no queues, no BS at security, few if any flight delays etc etc. Very stress free travel, plus the vital link to LHR. It also provide a vital business and air freight link for the west of Ireland. All it needs is to be serviced by a decent bus service from Galway/Limerick that actually COINCIDES with some flight times. Am getting really tired of Varadkar and his little tirades.
I agree, but it also needs planes to land there, I could count the planes that land there each day on one hand. No way on earth it can stay open without the subsidy.
if Shannon was turned into an international cargo hub it would soon become profitable but. the Western politicans are not happy with this as no votes in cargo … politicans and airport’s do not mix . SNN does not have the population to remain as a passenger airport and the idea that it would work if you put on a few extra buses is madness . If Snn became a major cargo hub for Europe it could be a serious jobs provider for the west
No passengers = no delays!
i think ciaro you seem to miss the one major factor in all this…… shannon and cork airport under the control of…. let me type this very slowly for you!…..DUBLIN airport authority….. how can they compete on a level playing field if dublin feathers their nests first and then throw the slops to snn and cork……we have a crazy system where the majority of tourists that come in to the country have to fly to the east cost first before they have to take a bus/train back to the west where the vast majority want to in fact go……
It’s not stress free for the poor unfortunate victims of US torture who passed thru on their way to hell on earth during extraordianry rendition. Or on the way back for US soldiers used as cannon fodder with limbs blown off and PTSD from US occupied countries because the country has lots of oil.
There is a diagnosis for lacking empathy.
Cork Airport is in fact profitable when the debt for the new terminal is taken out of the equation. This debt-free start was promised repeatedly by the previous government until the terminal opened with the airport then being handed the bill.
By that logic, Ireland is in fact profitable when the debt for the failed banks is taken out of the equation………….
not as easy as it sounds cork under the direction of the DAA and local.FF politicans went on a vanity run and spent 100 mill on. a large glass shed that was not needed . Cork airport when it was under the managment the late Barry Roche was the most profiable entity in the Aer Rianta group now due to this 100 mill spend is FU**** with a capital F and will collapse if shoved out on its own .
What needs to happen is for Shannon to become a humanitarian hub–not a US warport. Too bad the motion was shot down by a FF representative at a recent Galway meeting:
“humanitarian hub” give me a break! The fact that is used by the US is about the only thing that is keeping it open! When are people going to get over this neutrality bullshit and realise that Ireland has never been truly neutral and it is only a convenient way for successive Irish governments to avoid having to spend money on defence, that’s why Ireland depends on the RAF to defend it’s airspace and has a Navy that is only capable of being a fishery protection service with the odd bit of drug smuggling detection thrown in. Shannon needs all the help it can get and with the US winding down it’s commitment in both Iraq and Afghanistan those who run Shannon need to be thinking long term and finding new customers to replace the Americans who will eventually stop using it.
Once again Varadkar is talking utter s***e. Cork Airport was shafted and left to pick up the pieces. This situation would not have happened if they weren’t effectively lied to in the past. The Cork Airport management would not have been silly enough to threaten their own airports’ viability.
Smaller airports, such as Knock, Kerry and Waterford get PSO, Public Service Obligation subsidies from the government to help keep rural services afloat since they don’t have the attraction of the capital cities to draw in the tourists. if they withdraw the PSO subsidy, then the very least they need to do is increase public transport services infrastructure at these same locations to help the airports survive by themselves and give themselves a fighting chance to promote their areas. this holds true for cork and Shannon airports as well, since the public transport, at Shannon in particular is appalling ad unreliable.
All taxes should be spent where they are raised. If Kerry airport needs a subsidy let the good people of Kerry cough up.
Well Ciaro, that would be a great idea if it actually worked! Taxes used where they are raised? Your talking about local council taxes here surely? Not overall government taxes? Taxes are unevenly distributed, they always have been. If you disagree, then tell me, where is the tax money for the Luas service in Shannon, in cork, Waterford, knock or Kerry? do you think the good people of Dublin have coughed up and paid for the DART and LUAS ? NO! we all did! Every person paying taxes in Ireland paid for those things no matter where we live! We contribute as a nation, to the nation!
and just in relation to your above comments, ” Boo Hoo, Dublin Gets everything” ? Seriously? Did you feel good constructing such an intellectual sentence ? ok, let us drop down to your level for a moment, so we can converse. Do you know anything about the way this country is Run ? Public service obligations, keeping the nation as a whole running for the overal national health? Although, I guess your comment with Regard to Knock airport getting the money because Enda Kenny is a Mayo man shows how little you know about the system! Do you know how long money has been distributed to knock airport and other rural airports? or did did you actually think that this just started when Enda Kenny was put in Power? Or did you just think that you would get a lot of green thumbs up if you made a negative comment about Enda Kenny?
Why is knock airport getting taxpayers money? Anything to do with the fact that Enda kenny is a mayo man?
I distinctly remember ryanair saying they would buy the old terminal building. Would this not pay off some of that debt?
At the end of the day, all the govt need to keep control of is the actual infrastructure – tarmac and security.
I say, let ryanair have it for a tidy sum and watch it grow into a hub
Seamus Brennan made a public commitment to extinguish the Cork Airport debt on completion of the new terminal. However when Martin Cullen became Transport Minister he promptly reneged on this commitment, without explanation, and then, coincidently I’m sure, spent the same amount building a fabulous white elephant in his own constituency in Waterford which has been named “The Martin Cullen Bridge”.
The Gombeen of all Gombeens and the taxpayer and traveller will pick up the tab.
Give Shannon back to the people of Clare and Cork back to the Corkonians and watch them turn a profit
Let the DAA sort out the mess in Dublin and we will take care of our own airports
By people of Clare I presume you mean the proposal to have the county council be part of running it? If this happens it will collapse within a year, they dont have the expertise or knowledge to do so, and the councillors would make a complete balls of it interfering.
I’m not ryanairs biggest fan but I would prefer to see shannon run by Michael O Leary than Clare Coco any time!!
Shannons cost base and history of “jobs for the boys” is its single biggest problem, I spent several summers when I was a student working there and some of the wasteful and downright lazy work practices would make any rational person facepalm.
You are aware the building has been lying idle for the past 5 years? Why not at least rent it until it’s demolished in 2017? How is it putting all eggs in a basket to sell/rent an unused decrepit property?
That’s a bit of an old picture there, Malev went bus remember?
*bust
Karl,
A good few of those Malev’s including the 3 in this picture are still parked up in Shannon
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