A Personal Petition to the American Cancer Society

As I sit here this mother's day looking at the totals my American Cancer Society Relay for Life in SL team has done so far this year, I have mixed feelings. I'm proud of my team and all we have done to help raise money to fight cancer, but I'm disappointed in the ACS and fear all the money I've helped to raise is just going to be turned against me and electronic cigarettes.

I'm proud of my RFL of SL Team

On one hand, I'm proud of my team. So far we've raised over $5000 and have not even hit the halfway point yet. Last year we did almost three times that and this year we are aiming even higher. I have no doubt that when the relay comes in mid July, my team will have raised around $20,000 usd or more for this organization.

I'm co-captain of one of the largest producing teams in the Relay for Life in Second Life, the virtual world where I work and play when I'm not busy spreading the word about electronic cigarettes. I've been volunteering for the Relay for three years now and I see all the hard work that goes into it, all the fun we have and more importantly, all the money we raise for cancer research, patient counseling and such. I know we touch the lives of thousands of people and it's the reason I relay. It's the reason I've stepped up to take a leadership role. I'm proud of what we have accomplished.

But this year I have mixed feelings about the ACS.

You see, in 2001 I lost my mom to COPD. Smoking killed her. It's a big part of why i've quit everything to promote electronic cigarettes. My mom was one of those who refused to quit. Who refused to use the patch or the gum. She didn't trust in pharmaceutical drugs and after 50 years of smoking, she just didn't believe she could quit... or really didn't want to. I think she was scared as all smokers are when they try to quit. They see the dismal success rate the patch and the gum have, the horrible side effects drugs like Chantix have and since the acts of smoking have become such an integral part of their lives, these methods just don't work for 90+% of smokers who try to quit.

So they give up... and they die.

But this is perhaps exactly what the American Cancer Society wants. It certainly seems that way with the efforts the ACS is putting forth lately to help bury, ban, outlaw or destroy the electronic cigarette in any way they can. Their attitude seems to be that smokers should quit with drugs or die. There is no other option in the minds of the ACS.

So, I'm a bit disappointed in them. And I'm not alone in feeling this way.

Recently the ACS has been featured as "experts" in so many news stories bashing e-cigs that Dr. Michael Siegel, Professor in the Department of Community Health Sciences, Boston University School of Public Health, renowned tobacco control and public policy expert and author of the tobacco news blog "the Rest of the Story" was also prompted to speak out against the ACS stance:

The American Cancer Society should be ashamed of itself for telling the nation's vapers that cutting down significantly on smoking or quitting smoking entirely is bad for their health and that it doesn't promote improved health in the nation. But what they should be even more ashamed of is that their financial conflict of interest with Big Pharma, undisclosed in any of these articles, is shaping their public position and leading to advice that is going to substantially harm the public's health.

In My View: American Cancer Society doesn't want smokers to Quit, unless they use pharmaceutial products.

Wishing on a Cure ... And less drug company propaganda

Instead of welcoming this new technology, being open to it's potential and encouraging research and funding for studies, instead of joining the American Association of Public Heath Physicians, doctors who run our state health programs and who "favors a permissive approach to E-cigarettes because the possibility exists to save the lives of four million of the eight million current adult American smokers who will otherwise die of a tobacco-related illness over the next twenty years." the ACS attacks e-cigs at every opportunity.

Why? Well, many, myself included, feel that it has a lot to do with where ACS funding comes from. While the $20,000 my Relay for Life team will raise and the quarter million or more that will be raised in Second Life during this years relay might seem like a lot, it's a drop in the bucket compared to the millions the pharmaceutical companies donate each year.

So, when the press goes to the "experts" like the ACS to ask questions about e-cigarettes, they get little sound bites of "we just don't know what's in them", "the FDA found carcinogens", "they are not FDA approved", "there are no studies showing them safe and effective as a stop smoking aid" and then the ACS pushes the products their benefactors make. They encourage people to continue trying the products we've all tried and failed on. They tell smokers "Quit with the drugs or Die."

Never once do you hear the ACS say "According to all the research so far the electronic cigarette does show promise." or as Dr. Siegel put it "there is strong evidence, based on extensive laboratory testing, that these products are much safer than conventional cigarettes."

Never once do you hear them say "after five years on the market we have not one report of anyone suffering any serious side effects from them".

Never once do they mention that the FDA's own study found the very same carcinogens they tell everyone are in ecigs in levels similar to or below that of their benefactor's nicotine replacement therapy products.

Never once do you hear an ACS representative mention that 10's of thousands if not hundreds of thousands of people swear by electronic cigarettes and claim they saved their lives or quote the doctors of the AAPHP who said "Experience suggests that E-cigarettes may be more acceptable to smokers than the currently available pharmaceutical alternatives."

Never once do you hear the ACS say "We are not doctors. Perhaps that is a question better left to medical professionals like the American Association of Public Heath Physicians who have petitioned the FDA to cease it's efforts to regulate e-cigs as drugs because '"smokers can secure almost all the health benefits of quitting if he or she transitions to an E-Cigarette" and feel ecigs should be as readily available to smokers as cigarettes and NRTs."

No, instead you hear them discounting the research, ignoring the doctors and simply rehashing pharmaceutical company propaganda; spewing forth marketing messages for clinically proven as ineffective and potentially dangerous drugs made by the people who give them millions of dollars.

That's not looking out for people's health and that's not fighting cancer.

And again, I'm not alone, Dr. Siegel said almost the exact same thing on his blog just two days ago:

The American Cancer Society appears not to be inherently concerned about the health of smokers, but instead, to be primarily concerned with whether or not those smokers support the pharmaceutical companies upon which the ACS relies for funding. If a smoker quits using a nicotine inhaler or nicotine patch, it's a great thing. If a smoker quits by switching to vaping, it's a bad thing. Sorry, but that's not supporting health. It's supporting the financial interests of two big industries: Big Pharma and Big Tobacco.

My petition to the American Cancer Society

It's simple. Stop attacking electronic cigarettes because in your own words "we just don't know". Let the health professionals who do not accept funding from drug companies like Dr. Siegel and the AAPHP handle the questions from the press. You are not a medical association, you are not doctors, you have done no research into electronic cigarettes and you may arugably have a conflict of interest here.

Be honest about where your money and your sound bites come from when you push big pharma's products in the guise of concern over e-cigarettes.

Tell the press "we support any efforts to battle cancer and look forward to further research into the effectiveness of electronic cigarettes and any other new technology that might stop cancer dead in it's tracks."

This year's motto for the Relay for Life of Second Life is "Wishing on a cure". I'm wishing for some honesty. I'm wishing for some battling of cancer. I'm wishing for some real support for any efforts to curb the death rate of smoking. I'm wishing for more products that can help smokers kick the habit.

I'm wishing on some support for this promising new technology that seems to be winning the hearts of smokers and doctors who are not funded by drug companies for their research, rather than this constant opposition of e-cigarettes in favor of promoting the often dangerous and usually ineffective over the long term drugs that those companies who donate the most money produce.

Let the Drug Companies Fund them, I think I'm Done

This is probably my last year with the ACS. I have other issues with them about where all this money goes. How they pay their CEO and upper management hundreds of thousands a year and are one of the largest non profit organization land owners in history. But having them battle electronic cigarettes at every opportunity with their "Quit with the drugs or DIE" mentality is just the last straw for me.

I'll finish out this year. I'll help my team do the best they can. But then I'm done. I'll find an organization who actually puts the public's health before the interests of their benefactors. I'll find an organization that actually fights cancer instead of lining their pockets protecting drug companies and the mammography industry by attacking any new technology that threatens their strangle hold on cancer research, treatment and cures.

I'll help raise money to actually fight cancer, not try and put me and an entire industry out of business with misinformation and drug company promoting propaganda.

The Public Petition

I'll also encourage each and every one of you to sign the public petition the Vapers Coalition has put together. Perhaps it's not too late to change the minds of these organizations and convince them to put the health of the public before the profits of their benefactors.

>>>>>CLICK HERE TO SIGN THE PETITON!<<<<<

A Petition for the American Academy of Pediatrics, American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network, American Heart Association, American Legacy Foundation, American Lung Association, American Medical Association, Action on Smoking and Health, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Public Citizen and Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids to change their policy and support the sale and use of electronic cigarettes as a reduced harm option for committed adult smokers.

I hope you all had a great mother's day. Give mom a big hug for me.

I'll also encourage you all to click the link below and see what real doctors who are not paid by the pharmaceutical industry have to say about electronic cigarettes. What they think the right course of action is and where they think efforts should be spent to fight cancer.