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some people around the world have been saying that the cloud of uncertainty from vape related lung diseases is not known. It’s causing a lot of panic in the vape market.
Canada’s largest retail sellers of vapes reaching up to health officials across the country today. All the while Health Canada’s urging vapors to keep an eye out for telltale signs of pulmonary disease.
Following is an interview with Shia, who talks about the impact on his business, the public and his views on vape pens.
Toronto:
Shia Beckman’s president, CEO of – Vapes and joins us now via Skype from Markham Ontario.
Good to see you, Shia.
Shia:
Thank you guys, thanks for having me.
Toronto:
First I want to talk about your business in particular and all the headlines we’ve seen in the last several weeks about vaping. It has a lot of people concerned, a lot of people who perhaps don’t know much about vaping at all, what kind of impact has it had on your business?
Shia:
Yes, so you see a lot of customers that are going back to smoking cigarettes because they’re afraid of what you know that media is telling them the CDC the FDA in the States. They’re sending a very vague message, very muddied message and it’s causing a lot of panic for people, and some people are going back to combustible tobacco because of that.
Toronto:
Now of course that you mentioned the CDC, when I took a look at their latest communique, they’re basically saying we’re not sure what’s going on here 1,300 long injury cases. We’re talking about 26 deaths across almost two dozen states, but they’re not sure the only thing they seem to be able to point is, sort of right now with any amount of you know, not even certainty, but there seems to be a connection. They talk about THC containing products of course when it comes to vape. Those aren’t legal.
Shia:
No, definitely not. And so when you think of vaping, when you say vaping, you’re always talking about Nicotine-containing products, you’re not we talking about THC or cannabis products. So the same in the vape market. So that’s part of what I’m saying is getting confused by the messaging from the CDC and the FDA is. They’re mixing the two together for the public – to kind of differentiate for themselves, where we know that 87% or so right now have been confirmed to be THC related. And 13% claimed they never the only Nicotine, but those 13% never had any toxicology reports, it was just their word.
Toronto:
Now the problem is that obviously they don’t have answers yet, as to what’s going on. This issue has only been percolating for the past several weeks now, and they’re even unsure as there are theories about what’s going causing an illness. Is that some sort of oil getting into the lungs? Is it some sort of chemical contaminant? Is it do you have more concerns about the black-market product in terms of what might be causing this?
Shia:
Sure, so from what we know and what has been reported, it’s thought to be vitamin E acetate, which is a contaminant and THC cannabis vaporizers, a liquid with Nicotine, only contains water-soluble ingredients, there are no oil-based ingredients. So you can’t get lipid pneumonia or the poet pneumonia, which is what a lot of these cases seem to be.
Toronto:
What do specifically you’ve written this open letter? and you’re talking with Health Officials trying to start a dialogue with them, what kind of conversation do you want to have? what kind of message are you trying to send them?
Shia:
Yeah, we’re trying to make sure that the lawmakers and policymakers don’t do need York reactions like what they’re doing in the United States, but they use scientific-based evidence to actually make policy changes. And that they do know the difference between THC related vaping and Nicotine related vaping or vape pens, and we want to make sure that the public also knows that difference.
Toronto:
Now when it comes to health, obviously they might act out of an abundance of caution. If they did clamp down on the vaping products in general, what kind of impact will that have on your business?
Shia:
Not even my business would have, a devastating impact on public health. Because there are almost a million vapors in Canada that use these products as a way to stop smoking combustible tobacco. And they’re gonna be driving people back to smoking combustible tobacco.
We’ve noticed a big amount of decrease across the industry in vape.
Toronto:
Now I understand you started your business because you used to be a heavy smoker of tobacco combustible and you started this as a way to get off of it. Do you personally have any concerns about vaping and what health problems that could occur from it?
Shia:
The Royal College of Physicians in the UK reported that it’s 95% less harmful than combustible tobacco. I used to smoke a pack and a half a day for 13 years, I haven’t smoked since 2013 and I feel great. My longer results of the doctor have come back much better than they were before. So I know for me, personally, I feel a lot better since I started vaping and I stopped smoking. Their world college of physicians and public health England to this day are still coming out and stating that vaping is much safer than smoking cigarettes. And if you are an adult smoker, you should start anything to reduce your harm.
Toronto:
Alright, thanks for joining us.
Shia:
Thank you so much.
Toronto:
Shia Beckman, president and chief executive officer of – Vapes.
Let’s keep an eye on what the next vaping market looks like.