In 2009 the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) examined e cigarettes. Notably, they found a trace of diethylene glycol (DEG) in one sample.

This is a truth

Repetition makes a fact seem more true, regardless of whether it is or not. Understanding this effect can help you avoid falling for propaganda.Tom Stafford
But, let us take a closer look. It is clear that DEG is a deadly toxin. And, yes, it is used in anti-freeze. It was also used as a component in drugs: with deadly consequences. However, in all these, DEG was a deliberate part of the composition of the substance in question; With the case of the e cigarette it was found in a tiny quantity in the liquid. How it came to be there is unknown.

But let us ‘hang fire’ for a second. ‘The Tobacco Papers’ reveal that DEG has been deliberately added to cigarettes in the past.

Diethylene glycol (DEG)
Diethylene glycol (DEG) is a clear, colorless, odorless liquid with a sweet taste, and is an excellent solvent for water-insoluble chemicals and drugs. DEG is used as a component of multiple different products including antifreeze preparations, cosmetics, lubricants, brake fluids, wallpaper strippers, heating/cooling fuel and as a plasticizer. DEG has also been inappropriately substituted in pharmaceutical preparations for nontoxic constituents, resulting in more than a dozen epidemics of human poisoning, with resultant high mortality rates. The hallmark of DEG toxicity is acute renal failure, and deaths have been reported despite aggressive treatment with hemodialysis. -Calpoison.org

“Diethylene Glycol (DEG)…Humectants, or moisturizing agents, are used in cigarette tobacco blends to assist with aerosol formation and thus make cigarette smoke “milder.” The more that nicotine can be dissolved in the tar droplets, the less irritating the smoke is to the consumer’s throat and the easier it is to inhale. Diethylene glycol, more familiar to most readers as an automotive antifreeze, was introduced as a humectant in cigarettes in the 1930s by Philip Morris.”

https://publishing.cdlib.org/ucpressebooks/view?docId=ft8489p25j&chunk.id=d0e7944&toc.depth=100&toc.id=d0e7614&brand=ucpress

I started off writing about the repetition of a lie, and I will come back to this, but it seems, at this point, that there is more involved. What we have here are two of the classic symptoms of ‘the lie’ being combined. The first is repetition of the DEG lie, and the other is its relationship with the, “Tobacco Product Lie.”

I do not suppose that there is much coincidence here as they both originate with the FDA.

Although e cigarettes were not classified as tobacco products before the DEG scare, the classification and, even before the classification of vaping as, or the perception of e cigarettes as, being tobacco products, is critical to the success of the DEG lie. Here is how it works…

750,000 cigarettes
According to Japan Tobacco, which used it (DEG) for 17 years, a user would have to smoke 750,000 cigarettes before inhaling a lethal dose. –Ashtrayblog

Lies must be plausible: they should be based on what the audience believes to be a solid, truthful foundation. In the case of vaping, that is easy. Even before the classification of vaping as a tobacco related activity, the public, in general viewed it as such.

Principles of O’Flaherty’s Duck
And this just about sums up the level of knowledge and attainment on the topic achieved by most of the public, the majority of news reporters and those regiments of regulators who line up daily to snipe at vaping and vapers. They have seen people vaping. They think and they often state, “… it looks like smoking: you are all still smokers and, of course. you are still hooked on nicotine, so you, in reality. must still be considered smokers.” And every single criticism levelled at vaping seems to rely on this. Look at the studies which spew out of, which bubble up from, the stinking cesspit of Tobacco Control. Every major argument depends for its ‘success,’, but mostly more, on the principles of O’Flaherty’s Duck. –Vaping Post

The success of every single lie ever told about vaping and vaping products relies on the perception that the activity is the same as smoking: it makes the garbage, the scares, the fairy-tales so very easy to swallow. The public, because ‘they know’ all about cigarettes, ‘know’ that what they are told about vaping must be true because they ‘know’ about smoking. And it is because of this ignorance that the lies about vaping achieve such success.

The FDA on June 16th 2016 finalised its authority over e cigarettes deeming them tobacco products. It did this claiming that its aim was to… “protect Americans from tobacco-related disease and death. Tobacco use is a major threat to public health.” https://www.fda.gov/ForConsumers/ConsumerUpdates/ucm506676.htm Tobacco use = e cigarette use = disease and death.

This is a lie

Why did they not say “smoking?” “…protect Americans from smoking-related disease and death. Smoking is a major threat to public health.”

That is true.

And so, we have the framework for the perfect lie. There is prior knowledge, and whether truth or a lie that is the direction people will go.

And, to the public, smoking is so very familiar. And, they have been told, ‘Vaping is the same as smoking: vaping is tobacco use.’ The lie, but nothing after that matters, people will defend it as true. they will close themselves off to the possibility that it might be false.

Absolutely everything follows on from that lie.

We started with a truth – the best place from which to start a lie. The truth was that smoking was harmful. Then we utilised the similarities between vaping and smoking.

Back to repetition

I do not have to go back there, do I?

We are all aware of: the flawed studies; the outrage; the media reports where the media. led by the nose, defend what they perceive to be true; And repeat and repeat lie after lie after lie after lie.

Diacetyl, Particles, Cancer, Heart Attack, Metals, Lung Disease, Second Hand Exposure, Children, Pregnancy – are you getting the message? none of the lies would work if people did not think of vaping as the same as smoking. Don’t you think it strange that none of the threats attributed to vaping are any different to the threats attributed to smoking?

And the evidence mounts that these fantasies are nothing but that… fantasy with no evidence to support them – and plenty to demonstrate what they really are… but it does not matter, ‘people will close themselves off to what might be false’ – it is ingrained.

 

“Vaping is the same as smoking”

“E cigarettes are a tobacco product”

Liar, liar pants on fire.

No, they are not.

They are blazing!