A billion, trillion, zillion lives
Monday, April 4, 2016 at 21:40
Simon Clark

Some interesting responses to my previous post, here and elsewhere.

Dick Puddlecote replied and Grandad and Frank Davis chipped in too.

While we're on the subject of vaping, the producers of A Billion Lives, the documentary they hope will change the world, have just announced the date and location for the long-awaited world premiere.

It takes place next month in, er, New Zealand.

Before I post some of the promotional blurb, let's remind ourselves that this is not – according to some of its apologists – an anti-smoking film. No siree.

According to some the title is an ironic nod to the lies told by tobacco control, in this case the World Health Organisation's claim that if everyone stopped smoking a billion lives could be saved over the next century.

I'm sorry, but nothing that has been said or written about A Billion Lives – including the claim, in the film's trailer, that 165,000 children under the age of five die worldwide every year as a result of passive smoking – has ever come close to irony.

Instead the project appears to be driven by the type of evangelism that makes someone like me extremely uncomfortable.

Oh, I'm sure the film's producers are sincere when they say the aim of A Billion Lives is to highlight the lies told by some public health campaigners with regard to e-cigarettes.

I'm sure they're also sincere in their desire to promote a genuine harm reduction product.

It seems strange however to attack elements of the public health industry for, on the one hand, telling untruths about vaping, then repeat some of the myths, distortions and, yes, lies those same bodies spread about smoking in order to bolster the argument for e-cigarettes.

Anyway, let's be charitable and accept that A Billion Lives is not an anti-smoking film. Or, to put it another way, 'No smoker has been demonised during the making of this documentary.'

Here's the latest promotional email:

We've traveled across four continents, but missed one area of the world that is facing tremendous death and disease from smoking: Australia, New Zealand, and Southeast Asia.

That all changes on May 11th.

It's a mess down there. Two out of every five indigenous New Zealanders smoke. They just threw an Australian man in jail for selling vapor technology. Half the world's smokers are in Asia.

We are eager to use our world premiere to shed light on a dire situation. They need help.

No, nothing anti-smoking about that.

Meanwhile here's another description of A Billion Lives courtesy of the Doc Edge festival which is hosting the world premiere next month:

In 20 years' time, there will be nearly 1.6 billion smokers around the world. Approximately 70% of smokers want to quit.

The United Nations’ World Health Organisation expects a billion people will die prematurely from smoking this century. The products their doctors recommend are rarely effective and many are trapped.

A new vapour technology was invented to give smokers a successful way to quit. But it was quickly demonised, and even banned in many countries.

A perfect storm is brewing between smokers trying to quit, government regulators, and health charities funded by the powerful pharmaceutical industry.

Director Aaron Biebert travelled across four continents interviewing doctors, scientists, and others working to save a billion lives.

What he found was profound government failure, widespread corruption in the public health community and powerful subversion by big business.

Leaving aside the Michael Moore-style promotion, I'm genuinely looking forward to seeing A Billion Lives when it comes over here.

Curiously however I've yet to see any mention of a UK premiere. There's been talk of a European premiere (in Paris?) and a special screening at the Global Nicotine Forum in Warsaw in June, but nothing to suggest a screening in dear old Blighty despite the fact that several Brits feature in the film.

Given the UK is arguably the most vaper-friendly anti-smoking country on earth I'm surprised no-one has yet booked a cinema in the West End for such an event. There are many auditoriums available for hire in London including some of the most famous commercial cinemas in Leicester Square.

They don't cost the earth either. I know because I once booked a cinema for a private screening and I've just checked the current prices. They're available from £100 an hour.

So here's an idea. Forest (or Action on Consumer Choice) will host it.

Why not? Who wouldn't want to help promote a documentary whose producers boast:

"We’re putting everything we have into making this the defining film for an entire generation and helping end the grip smoking has on over a billion people."

On second thoughts ...

Article originally appeared on Simon Clark (http://taking-liberties.squarespace.com/).
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