I was bored and browsing through some YouTube videos when I stumbled upon this excellent vaping documentary. And boy am I glad I did.
This well-balanced documentary was made by the fifth estate (what’s up with the lack of capital letters?), which is apparently a popular investigative documentary program that airs on CBC in Canada. Despite the title of the documentary, E-Cigarettes: Welcome Back, Big Tobacco actually does a great job of explaining the history of vaping and the motivations of vapers.
It includes an interview with a heart surgeon who believes in the harm-reduction potential of vaping so much that he opened up his own vape shop. It also interviews some emotional people who are grateful that they are finally able to quit smoking thanks to vaping.
A decent chunk of the documentary focuses on the role that Big Tobacco is taking in the emerging e-cig industry, including product placements, advertising, etc. It was particularly interesting to watch the executive from British American Tobacco squirm as the filmmakers pressed him on why he is continuing to manufacture products that are known to kill when we know that vaping is healthier.
The interview with an official from Public Health Ontario is particularly infuriating, as he willfully chooses to ignore all of the evidence proving that vaping is much healthier than smoking.
If you have 40 minutes to spare, this documentary is definitely worth a watch to see the arguments from both sides of the vaping debate. It was interesting to see how they packed so many different perspectives into one short little episode. I had never heard of the fifth estate before today, but I’ll be sure to check out some of their other documentaries when I get the chance.
