Joshua Harris is the owner of an electronic cigarette shop in Toledo, Ohio called Smoke Revolt. Smoke Revolt was founded in January 2012. The company's mission statement reads:
"
Smoke Revolt strives to get as many people off tobacco as possible by introducing them to only the most *premium, high-quality* electronic cigarettes on the market! At Smoke Revolt, you will also find All-American E-liquids; made with only the most high-quality, USA ingredients! Since we manufacture our own liquid, this ensures our customers that they are getting fresh product that will produce a great taste and the perfect amount of vapor---possible!"
Smoke Revolt manufacturers their own e-juice and sells it on-line as well as in their two stores. WTOL Channel 11 News in Toledo, Ohio aired a "special report" in October titled "E-Cigarettes, What are You Smoking?' The station interviewed Joshua and one of this customers and included footage showing his store, storefront and products in their report.
What Joshua didn't know when he allowed WTOL to feature his store in their story is that this would end up being an anti-electronic cigarette piece and that he would end up losing business. WTOL brought up the old FDA study which found that e-cigarettes contain may contain diethylene glycol, a chemical found in anti-freeze. As it turns out, the FDA tested two types of electronic cigarettes and eighteen e-liquids. Only one of the eighteen e-liquids contained diethylene glycol and in very small amounts that are not considered as being toxic. You can read about this study in "
Of Vapors and Vapers" which is an excerpt from Michael McFadden's book
Tobakkonacht: The Anti-Smoking Endgame.
While WTOL did not report that Smoke Revolt's products contain diethylene glycol, they have appently been found guily by association. The WTOL story apparently served to scare people away from electronic cigarettes as the State of Ohio was pushing to ban electronic cigarettes at the time this report ran. They have since passed a bill that aims to do just that as reported by The Columbus Dispatch in an article titled "E-Cigarette Bill Passes House Despite Criticism."
Harris wrote a letter to WTOL asking them to publicly retract and correct their report and posted a copy of this letter on Smoke Revolt's Facebook page asking readers to "share it with everybody." Here is the letter:
Smoke Revolt INC 11/15/2013
Story Title: What are you smoking? Electronic Cigarettes
Attention: WTOL Channel 11 News, Chief Editor
I am writing to you today to ask that you publicly retract and correct your report entitled, “What are you smoking?” A special report by Brandon Jones.
Since the story ran, we have lost half of our business and you have seriously damaged our reputation in the community. As a company, we in fact employ ten people and their families count on us to be able to pay them. We would have never cooperated with you if we had known in advance that your story was going to use our company as the backdrop for your anti-freeze scare tactics that have nothing to do with Smoke Revolt’s brand.
As a local company we have sold over thirty-thousand bottles plus of Smoke Revolt E-liquid with not one occurrence of sickness. We have shipped eighteen hundred orders nationwide in the last year alone. We absolutely do not, we repeat *do not* put diethylene glycol in our brand of e-liquid. Half of our customers now believe we do. Because of your story you have diminished our capacity to operate freely and again, our business has dropped by 50%.
This is our history; We grew our business from the ground up; my wife was a stay at home mother and I was only an over the road truck driver and for us, this is all very sickening and devastating. We have two little girls, ages three and six that we would like to provide a decent life for and have spent many days away from them organically growing our business. This was all to give them a better future and help people stop smoking and support a good cause. You can please try to imagine all the hard work and sacrifices we have taken to grow our business. We are a local company, we are part of the community and love our customers dearly.
Your station frequently runs stories from time to time that ‘take a stand against bullying’, but I say to you, my wife now feels bullied and is extremely depressed and it is tearing me apart, (I am very worried about her). How is this fair? It isn’t in our heads because our sales have dropped over fifty percent since November Seventh 2013 and customers are wandering in asking us what is in our liquid? How horrible.
Whether you agree with electronic cigarettes or not, you have no right to destroy a local business with rumors and innuendo that have already been debunked. Our company name, Smoke Revolt was mentioned 9 times in your news story- no other e-cig shop’s name or brand mentioned specifically; and so our customers THINK we have been ‘poisoning them’. This is no light matter.
We have supported our customers to the best of our ability. Many of them have been long term smokers that wanted a way to quit smoking. Your report has pushed many of them back into a habit that will kill them while scaring them away from the only outlet that has helped them.
We can and will prove that our e-liquid has never contained diethylene glycol, however the damage that you have imposed on our company may never recover and the longer you wait to apologize and correct your error the longer my company will deteriorate.
We are seeking a public apology and correction of you're reporting. This can be accomplished by the following:
1. Retract your statements as many times as you aired the story and as many promo spots that were advertised; and make clear to your viewers that Smoke Revolt INC does not produce e-liquid that contains diethylene glycol.
2. Make clear to your viewers that Smoke Revolt INC only produces e-liquid that only contains PG/VG (Which is Kosher food preservative), and American refined nicotine. We are not the company they interpreted from Brandon Jones news story. By the way, the story was supposed to be about minors not buying electronic cigarettes; how it ended up an assassination on our company is beyond us.
YOU MUST CLEARLY
RETRACT YOUR STATEMENTS
OR WE RISK GOING OUT OF BUSINESS!
Harris then writes, "So the media slandered our business with no retraction or apology. We are taking a stand against the media. We need everyone to help share the truth.
There is not a single store that manufactures e-liquid that contains diethylene glycol located anywhere in the United States. The news focused all of their power on the Smoke Revolt brand just so they could run a hack story and sell it to other news outlets in other markets. To all that have supported us we thank you. We will continue to produce premium eliquid that only contains the finest USP/food grade PG,VG, and American nic. If you would like to help simply tell your friends and neighbors that the news report was false and we were used and attacked for profit. Thank you."
It's a sad day when reporters air stories that contain information that is not factual simply because they are trying to push an agenda. It is good to see that people are willing to fight back and not allow this to happen. If you have a little bit of free time on your hands, why not write to WTOL and support Joshua, Smoke Revolt and everyone who sells or uses e-cigarettes by expressing your views.
Smoke Revolt started out by carrying a large selection of devices,however they have now dropped to only 5. Smoke Revolt has a "Vape Lounge" with no public restrooms. I think Josh Harris is hurting business by hindering himself. Note: No other e-cig shop in Toledo has publicly screamed about loosing business.
ReplyDeleteRude and Heartless; there is nothing wrong with Smoke revolt being selective by not selling just any ol' device they encounter in order to please a-holes like you. They were the high-light of this BS news story and they have a right to stand up for the vaping community- a type of support you wouldn't comprehend. Dust the salt off. IF you need to take a dump, do it in your *own toilet* instead of shitting on the vaping community.
DeleteNo one is shitting on the vaping community but this is the stuff that will hurt us in the long run. What pisses me off the most is that WTOL is telling us what the FDA has found. and then stated that this was in 2009. I have been in smoke revolt many times and they are amateurs and do dangerous things. Making a mod with 7 18650 batteries is highly dangerous. and then using it.
ReplyDeleteBut lets get back on the subject. I heard thru the grapevine that WTOL had interviewed a couple of people and will be aired tomorrow night. Why dont we all watch it. See what they have too say.
WTOL did not slander Smoke Revolt they only stated what they found. Go after the FDA. They are the ones that put out the study.
Let us know what WTOL reports tomorrow. Did you know that WTOL's report refers to a very flawed FDA study? I think it is irresponsible of them, as journalists, to use such a study in a report like they aired. In 2009 the FDA tested 18 e-liquids and found DE in one, only one, of the 18 samples. And it was a small amount. Rather than test further samples, they released the report and everyone freaked and said e-cigs were made out of the same thing as anti-freeze. If WTOL had bothered to do their homework, they would have come up with something better than this flawed study. It's a scare tactic. And no, they did not slander Smoke Revolt, its more like a guilty by association type thing. WTOL never said that Smoke Revolt uses DE.
Deleteamateurs? really, what vape shop do you own? The fact is many people perceived the story as about "Smoke Revolt" since it was their products and name mentioned in the piece. I saw the mod that used all the batteries and trust me it was not dangerous, It was a comical stunt done by a person who no longer works there. Every time I have been there it has been nothing but professional. They have great juice and the only juice you can customize. Anyway lets sit back and see what happens with the follow up should interesting.
ReplyDelete