Emerging Deception

There is much in advertising today that consumers must be wary about. Advertising can be seriously deceptive. And certain advertising outfits will not care on the truth of the message if the pay-off is great. Smoking cessation products today can be as dangerous as advertised. These ads can have believable messages... but with a dangerous twist.

“THERE is nothing more deceptive than an obvious fact,” Sir Arthur Conan Doyle wrote in his short fiction, The Boscombe Valley Mystery.

Apparently, only one of four emerging tobacco products now available in the American market had reached the Philippines. That product is popular as the “e-cigarette.”

An E-cigarette is actually an electronic nicotine delivery system (Ends), a category of products that deliver a vapor of nicotine and flavoring on inhalation. Flavors include a variety of tobacco, fruit and food (e.g. chocolate) flavors. Companies market it as a smoking cessation device and an alternative to cessation. Of those who have tried it, 19.7 percent became regular users. Because it is the newest of the four, little research on their negative effects and efficacy exists.

The other three emerging tobacco products include snus, waterpipe and dissolvable tobacco products (DTS).

The snus is a smokeless tobacco product that does not require the user to spit.

Companies marketed it as a reduced harm product in airports, and in no-smoking areas as a tobacco product to use without having to smoke. Its nicotine content makes dependence continue, and tempts former smokers try it once more. Robert McMillen and colleagues from the American Academy of Pediatrics noted in the Journal of Environmental and Public Health (May 2012) that snus attracts more daily smokers (12.9 percent) than nondaily smokers (4.1percent).

Waterpipe originated in India in the 1700s, an instrument for inhaling charcoal tobacco smoke, cooled down by water. Marketed as safe alternative to cigarette smoking, people believe it safer than cigarette smoke. However, waterpipe produces concentrations of carbon monoxide, nicotine, tar and heavy metals at levels similar to, or higher than, cigarettes. It hooks nondaily smokers (26.0 percent) more than daily smokers (12.9 percent).

DTS is also smokeless and spitless; a flavored form of finely milled tobacco that dissolves in the mouth. Like snus and Ends, companies market it as a dual product.

It has special appeal to adolescents due to its attractive packaging, flavoring and dissolvable delivery system. Right now, its users stand at less than one percent among Americans.

The deception in these products come from three fronts— [READ MORE]

This article appears in SunStar Cebu newspaper on 24 July 2013.

POST-PRESS: Narcissistic Disorder, Ground for Annulment

On 20 May 2011 (Friday), the First Division of the Philippine Court of Appeals dismissed the plea that Julie Balarbar, wife of 15 years of House Deputy Speaker Lorenzo Tañada III, filed questioning the November 25, 2010 decision of the Makati Regional Court declaring the marriage null and void on the ground that Balarbar had been diagnosed with narcissistic personality disorder (NPD). Pyschiatric evaluation show a diagnosis of NPD with anti-social features, from her involvement in a shoplifting incident, her closeness to and trips abroad with her male students, and a kissing incident with a co-professor. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorder Fourth Edition (DSM IV-TR) enumerated nine indicators of NPD, with only five of them needed for the diagnosis. It is not clear however which indicators have been found in the case of the Tañada annulment case. The Archdiocese of Manila also declared their canonical marriage void ab initio (void from the start) due to "gra...

Death By Heat Stroke in the Philippines

The hotter and earlier-onset El Niño phenomenon this year 2010 poses a threat to the Filipino lives. How much life it took? See incidence that reached the news. UPDATE On 19 May 2010, candidate army soldier Ericson Pascua (22) came on his first day of training in Isabela when he collapsed after a series of strenous exercise. Although rushed to the hospital immediately, he died shortly afterwards (around 11 a.m.) due to heat stroke. That day Isabela peaked at 38.2 degrees Celsius. Sixteen others were rushed to the hospital for dehydration and heat exhaustion. (Check report ) On 28 April 2010, a veteran Cavite cop, PO3 Florencio Gamana Alivio (48), succumbed to cardiac arrest as a result to heatstroke while having tae bo with his colleagues at the Cavite Police Provincial Office (CPPO) grounds in Camp General Pantaleon. He reached the Imus MEdical Center but pronounced dead at 5:15 PM. (Check report ) In Batangas, former governor Amando Sanchez (57)di...

Omicron Updates

(Source: Penzit, 2015) UNITED KINGDOM As of 29 December 2021, the UK Health Security Agency reported the current status of its Omicron cases under emergency care. The lowest emergency admission rate is among those who received one dose of vaccine up to 21 days before specimen date: 0.1%. However, the overall rate for vaccinated individuals was very high at 72.5%. The unvaccinated emergency admission rate was 25.3%. (Source: SARS-CoV-2 Variants of Concern and Variants under Investigation in England , 31 December 2021, page 8)

Breakthroughs Today

Search This Blog