When we refer to the left as Progressives, what we are talking about, as Jonah Golberg wrote in his book Liberal Fascism, is that they are nice fascists. They’re just here to help. With massive government control. This is why Jonah put a smiley face on the cover. Transfats are bad for you, so they must be controlled and/or banned. Salt? Same. School lunches. You name it, they have their hands in it, because You Don’t Know Better. Except abortion. Then they want zero regulations or restrictions. Anyhow, I mentioned yesterday an opinion piece masquerading as an article about how nicotine is “poison by the barrel”, which followed an editorial about e-cigs, both at the NY Times. Now the EB steps in again
As little as a teaspoon of liquid nicotine — the key ingredient in electronic cigarettes — can kill a small child and less than a tablespoon, at high concentrations, can kill an adult. Yet some vendors are offering to sell the lethal product over the Internet by the gallon or barrel, with little control over how it is handled, as reported by Matt Richtel in The Times on Monday.
Nice coordination. Nice hysteria. I wonder how many products are sold over the Internet that could be considered “lethal”? Maybe we should just shut all commerce on the web down. Anyhow, if companies are selling crappy product, people will buy elsewhere. That’s the way it works.
Regulation is much tighter in Europe and other advanced countries. The European Parliament limits the amount of nicotine in e-cigarettes to 20 milligrams per milliliter, or a 2 percent concentration, which can cause sickness but is rarely fatal in children. It also requires childproof and tamper-proof packaging and graphic health warnings. Canada goes even further and regulates liquid nicotine and e-cigarettes under the strict rules that govern the safety of drugs; the manufacturers must submit scientific evidence demonstrating safety, quality and efficacy.
By all means, let’s replicate the notions of countries that have crummy economies, that do all they can to stifle commerce, all for “your own good”, before the facts are in. This is the default position of Progressives: if it moves, regulate it. And tax it. And cause its price to artificially increase.
Now, the Times does browbeat Obama for failing to move regulations forward via executive action and agency rule making quite a bit in the article. Moving on
The use of electronic cigarettes has soared in recent years because of the claim that they allow smokers to satisfy their nicotine addictions without inhaling the tars and other toxins found in tobacco smoke. But the devices carry some risks, like extreme addictiveness for young people just starting to smoke, harmful side effects at high doses and toxic ingredients caused by quality control problems in some factories. And now the potential dangers seem to be growing. An Israeli toddler died last year after drinking from a small bottle of liquid nicotine that her grandfather used to refill his e-cigarette.
I’m sorry a child died, and some have been harmed, but life is inherently risky. People, including kids, are harmed and killed every day from all sorts of products, even ones that are heavily regulated. How many die from cars? Wind turbines killed 14 people in England alone in 2011. There have been other deaths and injuries from wind turbines. A turbine just killed two people in the Netherlands in October 2013. Wind turbines are known to cause “headaches, ringing in her ears, insomnia and dizziness” (though more research needs to be done to establish this as more than a casual health issue). By Progressive, and NY Times, standards, they should be heavily regulated and even banned.
It’s time that the Obama administration allowed the F.D.A. to propose rules and begin taking public comment. The F.D.A. should limit the amount of liquid nicotine in any container sold to consumers, stop sales on the Internet, require childproof packaging and ban labels and flavorings that appeal to children. It will be crucial to prohibit the sale of liquid nicotine in very high concentrations; 10 percent and 7.2 percent solutions are widely available on the Internet and are lethal even in small quantities.
This is what Conservatives refer to when they talk about Big Government, and Progressive love of Big Government. American Conservative doctrine, which is more like Classical Liberal theory, discusses that the government that governs least governs best, and understands that there are times when the government should become involved, but they should use a light touch. Don’t go overboard. That’s not what the Times’ EB is proposing, as you read. Stop sales on the Internet? That’s insane. Ban all fun flavors? Those flavors make vaping fun, which helps people quite real cigarettes. And are individual choice. Limit concentrations? Limit size? This is the heavy hand of Progressivism.
