Courtesy Richard Levine/Corbis
You might not picture Rolling Stone when you think of evidence-based health stories - they gave space to anti-vaccine crank Robert Kennedy Jr. after all - but they have published an informative discussion of the ongoing debate about the pros and cons of e-cigarettes and vapor products.
In a lengthy article, author David Amsden discusses the burgeoning "harm reduction" approach to quitting lethal cigarettes. He points out the long-held dictum, lost by many among the official public health bureaucracy, that "smokers smoke for the nicotine, but they die from the tar."
Amsden takes on tobacco control experts like Stanton Glantz of the University of California at San Francisco and even dares to cast a well-deserved aspersion at sycophant Mother Jones, a magazine only too happy to propagate various anti-science myths and health ones also, in this context that vaping will lead to more smoking.
The key points made by Mr. Amsden would consume more space than I have here, but it covers smoking, smoking cessation/quitting, public health, tobacco harm reduction, vaping, e-cigarettes, and the FDA.
Note: The illustration in this article was photographed at a rally at New York's City Hall last winter, at which I spoke.
