Associate Professor Michael Keane - Monash Health
- Pippa Starr
- Jul 18, 2023
- 2 min read
18 July 2023
5 March 2018 - Vaping “normalises” smoking? Be rational
THE e-cigarette debate highlights the futility and sometimes downright pomposity of the trendy new uber-simplistic concept of evidence-based health policy.
History reminds us of the “arcane intellectual speculation” of 17th century academics over how many angels could dance on the head of a pin. Although it was probably never a significant preoccupation, it serves as a metaphor of “tedious concern with irrelevant details”.
In the latest salvo in the e-cigarettes debate, one side consumed considerable column inches arguing that there are only 178 000 angels dancing on the end of the pin and not the preposterously large estimate that 250 000 angels are dancing on that pin as the other mob contends; sorry, that was the number of vapers in Australia, +/- occasional users and whether to count them. The debate raged in the comments section.
Why are we seeing these innocent statistics tortured beyond credulity? Doesn’t the United Nations have a convention against torture?
A generation of factoid-wielding partisans has forgotten the admonition, possibly falsely attributed to Benjamin Disraeli, that there are three types of lies: lies, damned lies and statistics. This quote can also be seen as an acknowledgment of system complexity.
2 November 2016 - Dr Michael Keane and Tom Elliott 3AW discuss the impact of e-cigarettes
There are calls for e-cigarettes to be legalised.
While they’ve become readily available in Australia, the smoking of e-cigarettes is in fact against the law.
But Dr Michael Keane, special anaesthetist and adjunct associate professor at Swinburne University, told Tom Elliott there was no logical reason why they were illegal.
He said smokers should be encouraged to use them, in an attempt to get off cigarettes.
‘People smoke for the nicotine but die from the tar,’ he explained.
‘Nicotine itself is not particularly harmful.’
