Hello Dr Halabi.
I am writing you
today because of a news article I read quoting you on the harm of electronic
cigarettes. I thought you might be
interested to know that I am a former smoker of 3-packs a day, and I used
e-cigs to help quit almost 3 years ago.
As a pulmonary physician, I'm sure you can realize the benefit of me no
longer smoking that many traditional tobacco cigarettes. I no longer have respiratory issues, I havent
been sick in 2 years, my blood pressure and heart rate have all been lowered
and I no longer have severe sleep apnea.
I sincerely believe your statement misrepresents the benefit-risk
profile of electronic cigarette use. In your statement, you are telling all
smokers that the risks of trying e-cigarettes outweighs the potential benefits.
But this is not at all consistent with the actual science. The science
unequivocally demonstrates that there are tremendous medical benefits to
patients who are able to quit or cut down substantially on smoking tobacco
cigarettes using e-cigarettes. And there is essentially no harm in allowing
these patients to try to quit using e-cigarettes because smokers who use
e-cigarettes are precisely those who believe they are unable to quit using any
other methods.
I was one of them and as a business owner, I see hundreds of
people each month who have been successful quitting smoking using e-cigarettes
after failing in every other attempt.
Many of my customers, once getting off traditional tobacco cigarettes
actually lower their nicotine as well. I
personally started with 24mg and now I vape 0-3mg. This rings true to just about everyone I have
met throughout this industry.
I know you
are trying to be responsible and you have your own beliefs, but as a physician,
I strongly feel that your statements in this article are a complete distortion
of the risk-benefit ratio for the individual patient, and it therefore
constitutes negligent medical advice. I
encourage you to do more of your own research and discover the actual truth
that e-cigarettes could actually save lives.
We are not saying vaping and e-cigarettes are 100% safe, but they are
better than smoking in every single way.
We can both agree, we know without a shadow of a doubt that smoking
cigarettes kills. I also agree that there
needs to be more research on e-cigarettes, but right now, let’s get people to
quit smoking. Let's save a life, like
they have saved mine.
I would be happy
to further this conversation over the phone or skype if you're interested.
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