Showing posts with label Champix. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Champix. Show all posts

Monday, 17 September 2012

How the EU would rather smokers died than quit

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Perhaps we need to ask why the EU wants to ban the most effective means of tobacco harm reduction. Take snus, for example, this is the result of their widespread use in Sweden:

But consider this: Sweden has the EU's lowest rate of male smoking and consequently the lowest rate of lung cancer and emphysema. The health risks of snus are non existent – perhaps explaining why Sweden also has some of the lowest oral and oesophagal cancer rates in the world.

The EU already ban snus everywhere but Sweden. And now they want to ban e-cigarettes - presumably because they're not made by Pfizer and don't seem to make people kill themselves:

Pfizer make the anti-smoking drug varenicline, marketed in the US as Chantix and Champix in the EU. Endorsed by Action on Smoking and Health, it is associated with mood changes, depression and over 200 suicides. Pfizer are now subject to a class action from victim’s families and there is strong evidence that they suppressed these findings before the Food and Drug Administration licensed it.

There is no evidence at all the e-cigarettes harm anyone - not the user, not the person sat alongside, no-one. Yet the EU proposes to stop them - presumably because they're not made by big pharmaceuticals companies.

It seems that the EU, the anti-smoking lobby and 'Big Pharma' would rather smokers die than let them have access to proven means of reducing harm from smoking. And would rather ban e-cigs than fund studies to confirm that they are effective in reducing harm and in encouraging cessation.

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Thursday, 12 January 2012

This is what they push to help you stop smoking...

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...and it's pretty scary:

Varenicline, meanwhile, already carries warnings, as a result of Health Canada advisories issued in 2008, 2009 and 2010, concerning potential serious neuropsychiatric adverse events such as depression, agitation, hostility, behavior changes, suicidal ideation and suicide

All that plus:

The meta-analysis of data from 14 double-blind randomized clinical trials found that people taking varenicline had a 72% higher risk of adverse heart-related events than those on placebo.

So when your Doctor tries to prescribe you Champix (what Pfizer call this drug in the UK), ask him or her whether they really think it's safe.

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