TIP-TOE has been promoted by a cadre of individuals using the cover of reputable organizations, including the Mayo Clinic (here), the American Cancer Society (here), the American Heart Association (here), the federal Centers for Disease Control (here) and the National Cancer Institute (here). The principals believe that a world without nicotine is both desirable and achievable, yet they are not courageous enough to demand outright prohibition. Instead, they’ve implemented the subtle TIP-TOE strategy of chipping away at consumer rights and industry initiatives. Several elements of their campaign were in view in recent weeks.
On February 15, Senators Frank Lautenberg (D, NJ) and Dick Durbin (D, IL) urged Major League Baseball commissioner Bud Selig and players’ association director Michael Weiner to ban smokeless tobacco in their sport. At the obvious prodding of TIP-TOE advocates, the senators pressed for a “solution” to a “problem” that doesn’t exist, as I discussed in a previous blog entry (here).
Another TIP-TOE initiative is the move to ban flavored tobacco products, an issue I addressed over a year ago (here). A bill in the Washington legislature (HB 1246, here) would ban flavored smokeless tobacco products and all dissolvable products. A Utah bill (HB 170, here) would ban flavored smokeless tobacco products and electronic cigarettes.
These TIP-TOE bills are especially egregious. They would ban tobacco products that are almost risk-free, while assuring continued market dominance by vastly more hazardous cigarettes.
Using TIP-TOE tactics, tobacco prohibitionists are sprinting toward a public health disaster.
2 comments:
Very well stated Dr. Rodu! Although I'd quibble over whether they're sprinting TOWARD the disaster or are already eyebrow deep IN the disaster.
Senator Laughtenberg isn't new in this area: He got together with CTFK and RWJF back in March 2009 in an effort to ban players from chewing tobacco, and all the way back in 1994 he gave a speech where he said "Tobacco is killing our children!" (Yep, you see those annoying little corpses just cluttering the sidewalks all over the place now doncha? Sheeesh!)
Michael J. McFadden
Author of "Dissecting Antismokers' Brains"
In a recent article http://www.publichealthreports.org/archives/issueopen.cfm?articleID=2597 Dr. Lawrence Deyton discusses the "war on tobacco." Are any tobacco companies being killed or injured in this war? Since the bodies are all human, rather than corporate, the war is mischaracterized. He should be talking about the "war on smokers" or more precisely the "war on nicotine consumers."
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