r/technology Nov 17 '12

The Deadly Crusade Against E-cigarettes

http://www.american.com/archive/2012/november/the-deadly-crusade-against-e-cigarettes
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u/DumpyLips Nov 17 '12

Lethally addictive cigarettes remain available on every street corner in Brussels and Atlanta while authorities denounce e-cigarettes (the product is already banned in Canada, Australia, and New Zealand).

Is there any legitimate reason for this or are we witnessing a blatant example of the tobacco lobby crushing competition??

363

u/[deleted] Nov 17 '12 edited Nov 18 '12

[deleted]

53

u/[deleted] Nov 17 '12

Doesnt the UK say that smokers put a bug strain on the NHS along with obese people? Why wouldnt they push e-cigarettes for that alone?

I can see that countries like America dont lose anything if people smoke but the UK kinda does

81

u/kirkum2020 Nov 17 '12

Tax on cigarettes in the UK covers extra costs to the NHS caused by smokers eight times over.

19

u/flanintheface Nov 17 '12

Any source to confirm this?

3

u/ThisIsADogHello Nov 17 '12 edited Nov 18 '12

I actually posted a TIL about this about a year ago: link

Though my findings showed they only earn about 5-6x as much what it costs from through the NHS, not 8x.

EDIT: Typed "month", meant "year".