Maneesh Kasera

Vaper, ex-smoker, vape advocate, programmer, business owner, rationalist, atheist, curious

[Maneesh Kasera @mkasera]

Different nicotine delivery systems constitute a continuum of harm, but the most effective with negligible harm has been singled out for persecution by vested interests.
#WVD21 #EndVapeBan #CommitToQuit @vapeindia @MoHFW_INDIA @Reuters @ANI @rajeevgowda @ChaunceyGardner

[Clive Bates @Clive_Bates]

@vapeindia @IndianExpress @drshalini_icmr @ICMRDELHI @DeptHealthRes @IMAIndiaOrg @BShajan @Teensthack @MaitriPorecha @PMOIndia @JPNadda @NITIAayog @RahulGandhi @kharge @AnupriyaSPatel @toi @TheWireScience @ThePrintIndia @AITCofficial This study has been reviewed on @qeios. There is no way to draw any causal conclusions about vaping and heart attack or stroke risk. The smoking history of current vapers is the main confounding risk.
@IndianExpress should be much more sceptical.

https://t.co/LpqEFhoTZQ

[Maneesh Kasera @mkasera]

@airindia I appreciate this. I am only requesting that you help by calling the people who were seated around her.

[Maneesh Kasera @mkasera]

AI 2411 Mumbai-Kolkata flight today, someone took my daughter's carry on bag by mistake, leaving their own behind. The ground staff is not very cooperative in calling people around her seat. Please help @airindia

[Maneesh Kasera @mkasera]

@airindia This was cabin / carry on luggage. It was not checked in. There is no tag number.

[Maneesh Kasera @mkasera]

@airindia PNR 8GG7WY seat 10E

The ground staff did not issue any lost luggage receipt. As I said, they are uncooperative.

[Maneesh Kasera @mkasera]

@MoHFW_INDIA @PMOIndia @JPNadda @AnupriyaSPatel @mpprataprao @PIB_India @MIB_India @DDNewslive @airnewsalerts @mygovindia Stop preaching. Do your job properly. If things are not available, people will not use them. Choke the supply of cigarettes and other tobacco products first, then you can come after vaping. Your approach should be to curb the most harmful things first.

[Maneesh Kasera @mkasera]

@MoHFW_INDIA @PMOIndia @JPNadda @mpprataprao @AnupriyaSPatel @DDNewslive @airnewsalerts @PIB_India @MIB_India @mygovindia Please clarify which section of PECA prohibits buying.

Also, it's either PECA or PEC Act. What is PECA Act?

[Maneesh Kasera @mkasera]

Why does the volume increase to eardrum bursting levels when ads are shown?

I am currently in screen 5 at South City, Kolkata, with fingers in my ears and still uncomfortable.

@PicturesPVR @INOXMovies @_PVRCinemas

[Maneesh Kasera @mkasera]

@airindia Your crew is giving me illogical answers. They are saying the flight is hot because the doors are open. Do other flights board passengers with closed doors?

[Maneesh Kasera @mkasera]

Just boarded @airindia flight AI2737 at Delhi airport. The air conditioner is switched off and everyone is sweating. The flight smells worse than a stable.

[KJS DHILLON🇮🇳 @TinyDhillon]

Dear Citizens
If you see any movement of Indian Army, Airforce or Naval troops / vehicles through your town or city, please don’t make any videos or reels & NOT post them on social media.

You may be unintentionally helping the enemy

Jai Hind 🇮🇳
@adgpi @IAF_MCC @indiannavy
PC : www .. old pic for representation only

[Maneesh Kasera @mkasera]

At Kala Kunj, Kolkata for @UroojAshfaq12 stand up comedy show. Total mismanagement. The show is at 7pm and they have not even started entry yet. 600 people waiting outside.

[Maneesh Kasera @mkasera]

GST case id AD190325009756V was filed on 8th March and there is no movement. Need your help @nsitharaman

[AVI @vapeindia]

Cost of misinfo: A Mumbai woman was harassed for using a vape days after health ministry published tweets falsely claiming use (https://t.co/1bIxbOIEbu) and possession (https://t.co/yCB76xaoN2) of e-cigarettes is banned in India. It also claimed vaping is as harmful as smoking (https://t.co/8QjBSSEkFU).

Some of these tweets now have community notes on them correcting the falsehoods, including the one retweeted by MoS Health, Mr Jadhav (https://t.co/gbxMGpJNOZ). Yet the real-world consequences are exactly what Dr Harshvardhan had pointed out in Parliament – that banning personal use & possession will lead to harassment of people and infringement of personal liberties and freedoms (https://t.co/4vVziOrF7o).

Thanks to smart actions by the woman and commendably quick justice by @MumbaiPolice, the culprit has been caught and booked (see article below). But the culpability of the health ministry in facilitating harassment of lay Indians by spreading fake info cannot be ignored.

This incident has become known, but thousands of Indians across the country are being harassed and fleeced on this issue, with one person in Bengaluru forced to pay bribe of ₹1L! In a rare instance, two cops were suspended in Bengaluru for extorting vape users (https://t.co/EWGVB9UKFN).

The problem is that despite official, written assurances by both Union home and health ministries that vape users won't be criminalised, the vape ban law (PECA) does not clearly state personal use and possession of vapes is not illegal. And now the health ministry is ad hoc tweeting, without basis, that use/possession is banned. We had infact sought an RTI reply from health ministry asking in yes/no if personal use and possession is banned and under which specific provision, but it refused to give a direct answer!

This wilful and unlawful ambiguity has emboldened corrupt cops and scamsters. There is urgent need for the government to settle this issue by clarifying that personal use and possession of vapes is not a crime.

Legal discourse: The argument that anything that is banned to sell must automatically be banned to use is faulty for three main reasons:

a) if that were so, why didn't PECA state as much, and why did Dr Harshvardhan assure Parliament that users won't be criminalised, along with home & health ministries?

b) many products across categories, including smuggled or duty/excise unpaid cigarettes and goods, are banned to sell, but not to use.

c) Some health ministry bureaucrats have argued the intent was to provide temporary reprieve – ostensibly to allow current vape users to transition back to deadly smoking, which is an evil in its own right as vaping is a 95% safer alternative to smoking – but even if this is true, when did the personal use ban come into force? What is the punishment or fine for this crime? Why is this being done clandestinely, without consulting Parliament? Any ban needs to be explicitly spelt out, not inferred or guessed. Is it being done this way as the govt too knows such a ban is untenable in courts?

We request the government, the opposition and the courts come to the rescue of thousands of tax-paying vape users in India whose only crime is to engage with recreational nicotine in safer ways instead of the govt-sanctioned deadly products such as cigarettes, bidis, khaini, gutka etc. which kill 13.5 lakh Indians every year. It is also not their fault that the govt's vape sale ban has utterly failed and these products are available in every panshop across the country.

@narendramodi @AmitShah @PMOIndia @HMOIndia @JPNadda @nsitharaman @piyushgoyal @AnupriyaSPatel @mpprataprao @drharshvardhan @BJP4India @RahulGandhi @kharge @Pawankhera @KapilSibal @INCIndia @MamataOfficial @derekobrienmp @MahuaMoitra @AITCofficial @mkstalin @ArvindKejriwal @AtishiAAP @mieknathshinde @AUThackeray @AjitPawarSpeaks @TOIMumbai @HTMumbai @mid_day @livelawindia @ANI @PTI_News @THMumbai @ndtv @TimesNow @republic @MLJ_GoI @PIB_India @PIBMumbai

Article: https://t.co/A5y7jlDQJD

[Maneesh Kasera @mkasera]

@MoHFW_INDIA @PMOIndia @JPNadda @AnupriyaSPatel @mpprataprao @PIB_India @MIB_India @mygovindia @DDNewslive @airnewsalerts The law was initiated from your ministry, so you very well know that vaping is not illegal. You have yourself clarified this in a previous tweet. Yet you are intentionally spreading misinformation. Shame on you!

[AVI @vapeindia]

FACT-CHECKING this article in @htmedia quoting Dr Sonu Goel from PGIMER which makes false claims about e-cigarette harms, followed by reasons for spreading such vaping misinformation and what should govt do about it.

Article: https://t.co/OBx7cARFPL

@Robert_Aabraham @RCTCPGI

1) 'ecigs contain numerous harmful substances such as formaldehyde, heavy metals, and carcinogens... which pose significant health risks & respiratory diseases'

FALSE: Dose makes the poison. Ecigs contain these substances in trace amounts – formaldehyde (https://t.co/bO2JM6oEMc), heavy metals (https://t.co/zNAxeAvydy). They lower incidence of respiratory disease, and lung cancer risk from ecigs is 50,000 times less compared to smoking (https://t.co/qTtr1sdII8). No one claims ecigs are 'safe or harmless', but they are significantly 'safer' than smoking, which kills 8mn/yr globally and 1mn/yr in India. Thier relative safety is acknowledged by world's top health bodies (https://t.co/1asQmBSWAc)

2) 'ecigs are not an effective tobacco cessation tool, as they are not approved by food regulatory bodies'

FALSE: US FDA, among world's top food regulators, has approved 34 ecigs since 2021 (https://t.co/kI0u1ttZ4Z), while Cochrane Reviews, which provide the highest quality of scientific evidence, have found ecigs to be 2x more effective than NRTs in helping smokers quit (https://t.co/g9Z6AUSGnf and https://t.co/zjcoSeysnQ). Just-out study finds newer ecigs are even better at helping smokers quit (https://t.co/SyxzNro96l). Further, smoking rates are declining sharpest, most among youth, in nations that actively promote vaping and other less risky substitutes (UK, NZ, Japan, Sweden etc.)

3) 'increasing popularity of vaping among (non-smoking) young people'

TRUE, but: a) Most teen vaping is experimental, among current smokers, and regular use is low (https://t.co/KthtB67Xgw). It can be addressed with right policies and is down over 60% since 2018 in the US (https://t.co/1VhGkn4v4r and https://t.co/RiwVZoQgmU), b) if youth are going to experiment with nicotine despite efforts to dissuade them, an our ineffective ban (https://t.co/4pHObxUe0t), they might as well have access to the least harmful ways of doing it, c) the needs of adult smokers (+100mn in India) should be balanced with those of teen users, not as an either/or policy imperative

WHY: PGIMER's tobacco control initiative is developed in partnership with and big money from 2 foreign NGOs, the Union and CTFK, whose funding was recently restricted by Union home ministry (https://t.co/hG5HSYolTR), and both are majorly funded by Bloomberg Philanthropies, which is spending $280mn (₹2,350cr) in developing countries like India, primarily to spread anti-vaping propaganda (https://t.co/8zayFyzCio).

We therefore request @AmitShah and @HMOIndia to take action against such meddling and efforts to mislead the public on a crucial issue which impacts the lives of millions of Indians and costs over 1% GDP loss/yr. We also appeal to @JPNadda and @mohfw_India to reconsider its vape ban which is depriving over 10cr Indian smokers of access to a much safer alternative. #endvapeban

[Maneesh Kasera @mkasera]

@Jasmine_Khouja @Rawgster Define two sets of parameters if you must - one for vapers who have never smoked and another for those who transitioned from smoking.

Then there are people who continue to use both simultaneously. They will be difficult to fit in the stats but that should not effect the result

[Maneesh Kasera @mkasera]

@Jasmine_Khouja @Rawgster One of the issues is the moving goalposts.

Can researchers and policy makers sit together and pre-decide the parameters?

If 'x' many humans vaping for 'y' years don't show these specific adverse effects, we will declare vapes as safe for long term use.

[Maneesh Kasera @mkasera]

@vapeindia @WHO @FCTCofficial @JPNadda @MoHFW_INDIA @NITIAayog It's a common fallacy to believe that WHO wants to reduce smoking. They only want funding. They will only do enough to perpetuate the illusion that they are doing something. They will never back anything which actually works.