Mountain Vapor Blog

by Carl V Phillips

Somewhere along the line, I must have gone astray. During my master's in public health program, I was taught that one major goal of public health is to educate the public about the risks of various exposures. I was also taught that accurately communicating these risks, as well as helping the public to accurately understand the relative risks between different hazardous behaviors or products was critical.Well, based on an editorial published this morning in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) Network Open, I was misguided. For in this editorial, it states that the increasing public misunderstanding of the relative risks of smoking compared to vaping is "a good thing."The editorial responds to new research also published this morning in the same journal which documents that the majority of adults in the U.S. completely misunderstand the dangers that smoking poses compared to those posed by vaping and furthermore, that the proportion of people with this misunderstanding has been growing substantially over time. (See: Huang J, Feng B, Weaver SR, Pechacek TF, Slovic P, Eriksen MP. Changing perceptions of harm of e-cigarette vs cigarette use among adults in 2 US national surveys from 2012 to 2017. JAMA Network Open. 2019;2(3):e191047).According to the study, in 2012, only 39.4% of adults perceived e-cigarettes as less harmful than real cigarettes. This is pitiful, given the overwhelming scientific evidence that vaping is much less hazardous than smoking. But even worse, the proportion of adults who correctly perceived vaping to be safer than smoking dropped to only 33.9% in 2017. Thus, two out of every three adults in the U.S. incorrectly believes that smoking is no more hazardous than vaping.Perhaps even scarier, nearly 10% of adults in 2017 perceived vaping to be more harmful than smoking!The Rest of the StoryInstead of lamenting the fact that the public's perception of the severe hazards associated with cigarette smoking has been seriously undermined over the past decade or so, the editorial almost joyfully celebrates this massive public deception that has occurred. (See: Glantz SA. The evidence of electronic cigarette risks is catching up with public perception. JAMA Network Open. 2019;2(3):e191032).It is quite a feat of magical writing to take the dismal news that the public is increasingly downplaying the severe risks of smoking and completely misunderstands the relative risks of smoking compared to vaping and to turn that into a tremendous public health victory.The truth is, however, that this public misunderstanding is having devastating public health consequences. Convinced that vaping is no safer than smoking, many former smokers who quit using e-cigarettes are returning to smoking. After all, what's the point of staying smoke-free using e-cigarettes if vaping is just as bad as smoking? You might as well go back to your Marlboros.In addition, this misinformation is deterring many smokers who would otherwise have tried to quit using e-cigarettes to just continue smoking. After all, why quit smoking and switch to e-cigarettes if vaping is every bit as harmful. You might as well just stick with your Marlboros.Huang et al., the authors of the featured article, correctly point out that: "The need for accurate communication of the risk of e-cigarettes to the public is urgent and should clearly differentiate the absolute from the relative harm of e-cigarettes." But somehow, Professor Glantz does not believe that accurate communication is the way to go. Apparently, inaccurate communication is better.This would almost be funny, were it not for the fact that many adults are going to die because of it. As Huang et al. point out: "Perception of e-cigarette harm [compared to smoking] may deter current smokers from initiating or continuing use of e-cigarettes. This perception may also deter a complete switch from cigarettes to e-cigarettes among smokers. In light of this possibility, the observed upward trend of perceiving e-cigarettes to be more as harmful as or more harmful than cigarette smoking among US adults warrants heightened attention."In public health, the means do not justify the ends. We do not lie to people in order to persuade them to change their behavior. Telling the truth is a core ethical value of public health practice. But maybe not so much in tobacco control. For us, it is apparently acceptable to spread hysteria using false comparisons and lies simply because we can't handle the idea that there are millions of vapers who have saved their lives using a device that delivers nicotine.Original author: Michael Siegel

by Carl V Phillips

Here is my point-by-point response to several of the statements made in the press release issued by City Attorney Herrera announcing the introduction of legislation to ban the sale of all electronic cigarettes in the city of San Francisco: "City Attorney Dennis Herrera and Supervisor Shamann Walton today announced joint steps to curb the epidemic of youth e-cigarette use, which has erased more than a decade’s worth of progress in reducing youth tobacco consumption."The “epidemic” of youth e-cigarette use has not “erased” progress in reducing youth tobacco consumption. The gains in reducing youth smoking prevalence are very real and will translate into millions of lives saved down the road. The problem of vaping has nothing to do with tobacco use because e-liquids do not contain any tobacco. Youth who vape are not tobacco users. They are vapers. So youth e-cigarette use has not undermined gains in reducing smoking. It is a separate problem that, while serious, is far less of a hazard to the public’s health than the epidemic of youth smoking."San Francisco has never been afraid to lead,” Herrera said, “and we’re certainly not afraid to do so when the health and lives of our children are at stake."San Francisco is apparently afraid to lead because they are willing to take the politically expedient step of requiring safety testing for e-cigarettes, but they are not willing to place the same requirement on real cigarettes. In fact, tobacco cigarettes have already had their safety testing and they failed miserably. If San Francisco wants to lead, then why isn’t it taking cigarettes off the shelves?"Banning vaping products that target young people and push them towards addiction to nicotine and tobacco is the only way to ensure the safety of our youth."  Let’s stipulate that. But if that’s true, then certainly banning tobacco products (i.e., cigarettes and smokeless tobacco) that target young people and push them towards addiction to nicotine and tobacco is also the “only” way to ensure the safety of our youth."San Francisco, along with the City of Chicago and the City of New York, sent a letter to the FDA this morning demanding that the FDA do its job and immediately conduct the required public health review of e-cigarettes that, by law, was supposed to happen before these products were on the market." The law does not require the FDA to conduct a public health review of e-cigarettes. What it requires is that manufacturers who want their products to remain on the market must submit a pre-market tobacco application to the agency for approval. This review was not supposed to happen before the products were on the market. They were already on the market in 2014 when the FDA issued its regulations. The FDA delayed the deadline for these applications because not doing so would have resulted in the elimination of vaping products, forcing millions of ex-smokers back to smoking and removing a huge competitor to cigarettes. It would have been a huge gift for cigarette companies. So it’s a good thing that the FDA did not enforce its original August 2016 deadline."In coordination with the City Attorney’s Office, Supervisor Walton is introducing groundbreaking legislation at the Board of Supervisors today that would prohibit the sale in San Francisco of any e-cigarette that has not undergone FDA review." This is not ground-breaking. What would have been ground-breaking is if the city introduced legislation to ban all tobacco products that have not been reviewed by the FDA and found to be reasonably safe. Surely, cigarettes would have been on this list."This is not an outright ban on e-cigarettes. It’s a prohibition against any e-cigarettes that haven’t been reviewed by the FDA to confirm that they are appropriate for the protection of public health."It is essentially an outright ban on e-cigarettes because the city knows full well that there isn’t a single e-cigarette that has gone through the pre-market approval process (since that deadline was extended until 2021). But the more important question is why the Board of Supervisors believe that e-cigarettes should only be sold if they are shown to be appropriate for the public health, while they are allowing cigarettes to be sold even though we know for certain that they are not “appropriate for the public’s health.”"The FDA has simply failed to do its job in unprecedented fashion,” Herrera said. “These are prudent steps to ensure that we know the health and safety implications of products being sold here. If the FDA hasn’t reviewed it, it shouldn’t be on store shelves in San Francisco." If they really mean what they say, then certainly, cigarettes should be on store shelves in San Francisco. You can’t take as a serious public health effort a proposal that e-cigarettes should be taken off of store shelves in San Francisco because we’re not certain of their health implications, yet it’s perfectly fine to let cigarettes remain on store shelves in San Francisco despite the fact that they have dismally failed their “safety review.” There is simply no public health justification for banning e-cigarettes but not real cigarettes."Tobacco use is the leading cause of preventable disease and death in the United States. Tobacco kills more than 480,000 people a year in this country. That’s more than AIDS, alcohol, car accidents, illegal drugs, murders and suicides combined." Exactly! Yet vaping products are not responsible for a single one of those 480,000 deaths. And so the city of San Francisco’s response to 480,000 deaths from cigarettes is: Let’s ban the fake cigarettes and let the real ones, which are causing 480,000 deaths a year, to stay on the shelves."These companies may hide behind the veneer of harm reduction, but let’s be clear: their product is addiction." Veneer of harm reduction? There is overwhelming evidence that vaping is much safer than smoking. It is convenient to ignore this scientific evidence because it doesn’t make for as good of a story. But public health needs to be guided by science and evidence, not by political expediency.Original author: Michael Siegel

Yesterday, San Francisco City Attorney Dennis Herrera and Supervisor Shamann Walton announced that they are introducing an ordinance to the Board of Supervisors that would ban all electronic cigarettes until they are officially reviewed and approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Since there is not a single e-cigarette on the market that has undergone such an approval process, the ordinance does indeed ban the sale of all electronic cigarettes in the city of San Francisco.The reasoning behind the proposal is as follows: "Today we are taking action to protect our kids. By law, before a new tobacco product goes to market, the Food and Drug Administration is supposed to conduct a review to evaluate its impact on public health. Inexplicably, the FDA has failed to do its job when it comes to e-cigarettes. Until the FDA does so, San Francisco has to step up. These products should not be on our shelves until the FDA has reviewed the threat they pose to public health."The Rest of the StoryThis has to be one of the most insane public health proposals I have ever seen. This legislation basically says: "We care so much about the health of our kids that we can't allow e-cigarettes to remain on the market until they have a complete safety review. However, we are perfectly happy allowing cigarettes--which have had extensive safety reviews and been found to be killing hundreds of thousands of Americans each year--to remain on the market. Let us be honest. We care enough about our kids to take the politically expedient step of making it look like we are truly protecting their health by banning e-cigarettes, but we don't care about our kids so much that we want to actually protect them by removing from the market a product that we know is going to kill half of those kids who become addicted to it."This is truly a political maneuver under the guise of a desire to protect children's health. Let's be clear. If the Board of Supervisors were sincerely committed to protecting kids, they would immediately remove cigarettes--the most deadly consumer product--from the market. Cigarettes are addicting and eventually killing more than 400,000 Americans each year. Yet you mean to tell me that in light of that, the Board of Supervisors wants to conduct a safety review for the fake cigarettes?And what's the point of such a safety review? We already have a safety review of cigarettes and know that they are deadly. And in light of that, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors nevertheless feels perfectly comfortable allowing those products to be sold. Do they think that electronic cigarettes are actually more hazardous than cigarettes? Of course not. They know full well that e-cigarettes are far safer than the real ones.Clearly, the reason why they want to ban the fake cigarettes but not the real ones is because they don't have the political courage to take the step that would most substantially protect the public's health. This is an easy opportunity to make it look like they are totally committed to protecting kids when in fact, they are apparently perfectly content to allow the most dangerous consumer product in history to be sold on retail shelves in gas stations, convenience stores, and other places that are easily accessible to kids throughout the city.This is an easy political victory because they know the vaping industry is not organized or centralized enough to fight it successfully. But if they are justified in banning e-cigarettes, then it is certainly imperative upon them - and actually much more justified - to ban real cigarettes. However, the tobacco industry is organized, centralized, and powerful.The rest of the story is that what is really going on here is that the proponents of this ordinance simply do not have the political courage to take the real action that would protect the public's health: banning cigarettes. Removing e-cigarettes from the shelves is an easy political victory that may make it seem like they desire to protect kids, but the truth is that they are apparently perfectly content with allowing deadly cigarettes to be sold to the kids who they purport to be protecting.Ultimately, this is politics, not public health.Original author: Michael Siegel

Another crappy study has come along, this one again using cross-sectional data from the National Health Interview Survey to claim that e-cigarette use is associated with a higher risk of having a heart attack, developing coronary artery disease, and having depression.This study, being presented tomorrow (Monday) morning at the annual meeting of the American College of Cardiology in New Orleans, reports that "adults who report puffing e-cigarettes, or vaping, are significantly more likely to have a heart attack, coronary artery disease and depression compared with those who don’t use them or any tobacco products."These conclusions were based on a cross-sectional analysis of data from the 2014, 2016, and 2017 National Health Interview Surveys. Respondents were asked to report whether they had ever been diagnosed with having had a heart attack, coronary artery disease, or depression. The analysis found that people who reported vaping were more likely to have ever had a heart attack, to have ever been told they have coronary artery disease, or to have ever been diagnosed with depression. The analysis did control for smoking by including smoking status as a variable in the regression model.The Rest of the StoryThis is yet another example of the junk science that is rapidly being spewed out by anti-tobacco researchers who are apparently more interested in demonizing vaping than in using rigorous scientific reasoning.The problem with the study's conclusion is that this is a cross-sectional analysis and the researchers have no idea which came first: the vaping or the heart attack, heart disease, or depression.Let's consider heart attacks. It is entirely possible (and actually quite likely) that most - if not all - of the respondents who reported that they are vapers had started vaping after, not before their heart attacks. In fact, a likely explanation for the findings is that smokers who experience a heart attack are much more likely to try to quit smoking, and since switching to vaping is a common method of attempting to quit smoking, they are more likely to respond that they are vapers.The investigators claim that they have controlled for smoking. But here's the problem: smoking is not only a confounder in the analysis; it is also an effect modifier. This means that the association between vaping and having had a heart attack is different for nonsmokers and smokers. For nonsmokers, there is no association. The association only holds for former smokers and current smokers. In the presence of effect modification, treating smoking purely as a confounder will yield inaccurate results. In order to model the relationship correctly, you need to stratify the analysis on smoking status: that is, you need to report the relationship separately for nonsmokers, former smokers, and current smokers.None of the papers that have claimed vaping causes heart attacks, heart disease, stroke, or COPD have done that. They treat smoking as a confounder, but do not test for effect modification.It is unfortunate that this crappy science is being reported at scientific conferences and in scientific journals. But what makes this a real tragedy is that this junk science is being used to justify policies to regulate vaping more harshly than smoking, by: (1) heavily taxing these products; (2) banning e-cigarette flavors; and/or (3) completely banning the sale of e-cigarettes in convenience stores.The rest of the story is that rather than demonstrating that vaping causes heart attacks, heart disease, COPD, and depression, what these studies show is that when smokers get very sick, they are highly motivated to quit in order to save their lives, and many of them do so by switching to vaping.This is about 11 million lives, not 11 million lies.Original author: Michael Siegel

by Carl V Phillips

My colleagues and I in the tobacco control movement have based our entire careers on the principle that it is wrong to lie to the public. The bulk of our campaign against Big Tobacco was based on the contention that the cigarette companies lied to the public about the health risks of smoking. Numerous lawsuits were filed against Big Tobacco, seeking damages based on the claim that the companies are responsible because they misrepresented the health effects of their products, thus preventing smokers from making an informed choice. The name of the major youth anti-tobacco campaign is called "Truth." Clearly, honesty is the central value that has been at the core of the tobacco control movement for decades.In the last few years, however, I believe that our movement has largely abandoned truth as a central value in our campaigns against vaping. Driven by an almost puritanical inability to accept the fact that a person could obtain pleasure from nicotine without it killing them, we have made the demonization of vaping the solitary goal of the movement, at the direct expense of what I always believed was our primary goal: to make smoking history.Why is vaping so threatening to the tobacco control movement? Is it threatening because it is extremely dangerous -- basically as harmful as smoking -- and therefore is is harming the health of the nation's 11 million adult vapers?No - it's precisely the opposite. It is threatening to us because it is not as harmful as smoking. We simply cannot tolerate the fact that there are millions of adults who are deriving pleasure from, and improving their health because of, the use of a much safer form of nicotine delivery. The problem with vaping is that it is not killing anyone, so there is no punishment for the vice of being addicted to nicotine. And that's something that the tobacco control movement can simply not tolerate.I believe that it is precisely because the truth is so threatening that many anti-tobacco groups, public health agencies, physicians, and researchers have resorted to lying to the public about the health effects of vaping.The Rest of the StoryWhile the tobacco control movement is spewing numerous lies about vaping, perhaps the most damaging to the public's health is the false claim that vaping is not any safer than smoking. This is a direct affront to each one of the 11 million adult vapers in the United States who are trying to improve their health by switching from combustible tobacco use (i.e., smoking) to the use of non-tobacco-containing, non-combusted vaping products. And it is particularly offensive to the more than 2.5 million adult vapers who quit smoking completely because of these products and who are now relying on vaping to keep them from returning to smoking. For these 2.5 million ex-smokers, vaping has literally saved their lives.So it is shameful that we are now trying to take that away from them based on a complete lie: that switching to vaping is doing nothing to protect their health.Today, I highlight just a few of the individuals and organizations that are spreading the lie that vaping is no safer than smoking. Keep in mind that by definition, what these groups are saying is that smoking is no more dangerous than vaping. That's quite a claim, given the fact that smoking kills more than 400,000 people a year, contains more than 10,000 chemicals, and contains more than 60 known human carcinogens, while vaping aerosol, at worst, contains a few chemicals of concern and has not, after 12 years of use by millions of people, resulted in a single death (excepting one person who was killed due to an exploding battery, but not to the health effects of vaping itself).So here is today's top 10 examples of the individuals, groups, and researchers who are helping to spread the false assertion that cigarette smoking is no more hazardous than vaping.#1) National Center for Health Research"The body’s reaction to many of the chemicals in traditional cigarette smoke causes long-lasting inflammation, which in turn leads to chronic diseases like bronchitis, emphysema, and heart disease. Since e-cigarettes also contain many of the same toxic chemicals, there is no reason to believe that they will significantly reduce the risks for these diseases. ... Because they are smokeless, many incorrectly assume that e-cigarettes are safer for non-smokers and the environment than traditional cigarettes. ... There are no long-term studies to back up claims that the vapor from e-cigarettes is less harmful than conventional smoke."#2) Loyola University Medical Center"E-cigarettes are not safer than cigarettes. .. They have not been scientifically proven as healthier or safer, and the U.S. surgeon general has not approved them for use in smoking cessation." #3) South Dakota Department of Health"Vape is not safer than cigarettes."#4) Tennessee Medical Association"Despite being marketed as a safe alternative to smoking, e-cigarettes are not safer and they never have been. They have simply been marketed that way. As a result, many people believe trading a traditional combustible cigarette for vaping is going to make them healthier, and that the vaping or e-cigarette use is far less damaging health-wise."#5) Harford County Health Department"E-cigarettes are not safer than smoking tobacco."#6) Jane Goodall Institute"E-cigarettes are the biggest problem, and for the third year in a row they are the first choice among youth smokers. But contrary to popular belief, they are not safer than other tobacco products, they are actually more addictive due to the menthol component that makes them so easy to consume."#7) Des Moines Children's Hospital"It is absolutely not safer than smoking, that is a fallacy that adolescents believe because it tastes good."#8) Texas Tech University School of Pharmacy"These data suggest, from a cerebrovascular perspective, that e-Cig vaping is not safer than tobacco smoking, and may pose a similar, if not higher risk for stroke severity."#9) University of Rochester Medical Center"Studies by his group and others, Rahman says, suggest that vaping is not safer than smoking: 'It’s equally bad.'"#10) East Rockaway Prevention Task Force"Too many teens, officials said, believe vaping is safer than smoking, when it’s not."Original author: Michael Siegel

Posted on 16 March 2019 by Carl V Phillips | Leave a comment

by Carl V Phillips

by Carl V Phillips

by Carl V Phillips

According to a study conducted by Juul and presented Saturday at the Big-Pharma funded SRNT annual meeting, there is no difference between switching from smoking to Juul and quitting smoking cold turkey in terms of the reduction in biomarkers of toxic chemicals.In the study, a group of 90 adult smokers were randomized to either: (1) continue to smoke as usual; (2) stop smoking cold turkey; or (3) switch completely from smoking to Juul. After five days, the researchers measured the change in the level of nine different biomarkers for toxic chemicals, which indicates the level of exposure to these chemicals.The key finding of the study was that the degree of reduction in exposure to these toxic chemicals was identical for the group that quit smoking cold turkey and the group that switched from smoking to Juul.The Rest of the StoryThis study adds to the already overwhelming evidence that vaping is much safer than smoking. And it further emphasizes the degree to which the Pennsylvania Department of Health is lying about the relative health effects of smoking vs. vaping. As I reported last week, the Pennsylvania Department of Health informs the public on its web site that: "E-cigarettes, also known as e-cigs, e-hookahs, mods, vape pens, vapes or ENDS, are not safer than other tobacco products for youth."This study is significant because it did not show that toxic chemical biomarker reduction with the Juul was at some level between continuing to smoke and quitting cold turkey. Instead, the level of reduction was indistinguishable from that resulting from cold turkey cessation.In other words, if someone presented to a physician and the physician had to determine whether that person had quit smoking cold turkey five days earlier or switched to Juul five days earlier, the physician could not tell the difference, at least not based on the level of these toxic chemical biomarkers.This new study adds to a large body of existing research that casts severe doubt on the assertions of many tobacco control researchers and organizations, and many health departments, that vaping is really not all that much different from smoking in terms of health.Original author: Michael Siegel

A basic principle of public health ethics is that we don't lie to people. Telling the truth is a critical component of the public health code of ethics. It is important not only because it is unethical to lie, but also because we greatly risk losing credibility and the public's trust if we are found to be lying. And once that public trust is lost, it is extremely difficult, if not impossible, to gain back.Therefore, it pains me today to have to report that the Pennsylvania Department of Health is urging parents to lie to their kids about e-cigarettes in order to dissuade them from vaping. In addition, the Pennsylvania Department of Health is lying to the public about the dangers of e-cigarettes and tobacco cigarettes as well.The Pennsylvania Department of Health put out a tweet that read: "E-cigarettes, e-cigs, e-hookahs, mods, vape pens or vapes—whatever you call them, they are NOT safer than other tobacco products. Learn how you can help protect you child's health by talking about the dangers of vaping → http://bit.ly/2RuVOev  #NoEcigs4Kids."On its web site, the Pennsylvania Department of Health informs the public that: "E-cigarettes, also known as e-cigs, e-hookahs, mods, vape pens, vapes or ENDS, are not safer than other tobacco products for youth."The Rest of the StoryIt is simply not true that e-cigarettes are as dangerous as tobacco cigarettes, or that vaping is as dangerous as smoking. At this point, there is abundant scientific evidence that vaping is much safer than smoking. In fact, smokers who switch to e-cigarettes experience dramatic improvement in their respiratory symptoms and lung function.The Royal College of Physicians concluded that vaping is at least 95% safer than smoking, but even if you don't agree that the risk difference can be quantified, the evidence demonstrates that e-cigarettes are a much safer product than real tobacco cigarettes. The reason for this is that e-cigarettes contain no tobacco and involve no combustion. While tobacco smoke contains more than 10,000 chemicals including more than 60 known human carcinogens, e-cigarette aerosol, at worst, contains more like 20 chemicals and perhaps 1 or 2 carcinogens. And this is only the case for e-cigarette brands that do not properly regulate the temperature of the heating coil. Studies of the aerosol of brands that have proper temperature regulation have not detected significant levels of any hazardous chemicals.There is no question that e-cigarettes are much safer than cigarettes in terms of lung damage and in terms of cancer risk. E-cigarettes have been on the market now for 12 years and have been used by millions without any identified health effects (other than some mild respiratory irritation).So what the Pennsylvania Department of Health is doing is lying to the public by telling us that vaping is no safer than smoking. Or, put another way, these health officials are asserting that cigarette smoking is no more hazardous than vaping.Were a tobacco company to make the same statement, it would be rightly accused of fraud and deception. So why can a state health department make that statement with immunity?The reason, I believe, is that most tobacco control groups no longer care about the truth and about scientific accuracy. They are more concerned with creating hysteria about vaping and scaring the public. While the ultimate goal - reducing youth vaping - may be considered to be laudable, the ends do not justify the means. Lying to kids to discourage them from engaging in a particular behavior is not the way to go. And it is not something that we condone in public health.The Department of Health's message is also deceptive because it instructs parents that by preventing their kids from vaping, they can keep their kids tobacco-free. This is highly deceptive because it implies that a youth who vapes is using tobacco. That simply isn't true as there is no tobacco in an e-cigarette. In fact, the very thing that distinguishes an e-cigarette from a real cigarette or from a heat-not-burn tobacco product is the absence of tobacco. If an e-cigarette actually contained tobacco, then it would not be an e-cigarette. It would be a heat-not-burn tobacco product.A youth who vapes is tobacco-free. They are not nicotine-free (unless they use an e-liquid that does not contain nicotine), but they are smoke-free and they are tobacco-free.I believe that one of the reasons why public health groups have been so ineffective in reaching youth with anti-vaping messages is that the kids are seeing right through these lies. Kids are not stupid. They can see with their own eyes that when someone lights up a cigarette, the health effects are immediately apparent. Smokers cough, they are typically short of breath upon exertion, they are more prone to pneumonia and upper respiratory infections, etc. But kids see plenty of other kids vaping and Juuling without any visible health effects. Today's kids are just not going to buy the lies that the Pennsylvania Department of Health and other anti-nicotine groups are selling them.Ultimately, I believe that the credibility and reputation of public health groups and agencies is going to be seriously undermined by the widespread lying and deception that is taking place regarding the relative risks of vaping compared to smoking. Disseminating false facts like this is unethical, it specifically violates the public health code of ethics, it puts the reputation of public health itself at risk, and at the end of the day, it doesn't even accomplish its intended objective of discouraging kids from vaping.If you're going to tarnish the image of public health and violate our ethical code, at least do it in a way that accomplishes some great public health objective. Lying about vaping is doing plenty of tarnishing, but nothing to protect the public's health.The rest of the story is that lying to kids isn't justified even if it did prevent them from vaping. But it is doing just the opposite, as kids see through the lies and in some ways, it makes vaping more attractive.Original author: Michael Siegel

Controversy is brewing in San Francisco this week as it was revealed that the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco (SRNT) accepted money from an e-cigarette company to sponsor its annual meeting which is being held this week.It was reported this morning that SRNT accepted funding from GreenSmokeKloud, an e-liquid distributor whose products are competing with nicotine replacement therapy and Chantix for a share of the smoking cessation market.Critics pointed out that sponsorship of the conference by GreenSmokeKloud presents a severe conflict of interest because its products are being used for smoking cessation and the SRNT conference involves numerous presentations dealing with the effectiveness or lack of effectiveness of e-cigarettes and vaping products similar to or including those manufactured by GreenSmokeKloud.Stanley Glanton, a professor at CFSU, told The Rest of the Story that: "This is a clear-cut conflict of interest. You can't have a conference sponsored by a company that makes products which are being discussed at scientific sessions. How can we have an objective conversation about electronic cigarettes and the epidemic of youth vaping when GreenSmokeKloud signs are all over the place and conference attendees know that this company is a major sponsor of the conference?"Several tobacco control researchers pointed out that the Food and Drug Administration is actually presenting at the conference and the FDA has regulatory jurisdiction over vaping products, creating a further conflict of interest. They also pointed out that a major theme of the research being presented is what should be the appropriate role of vaping products in smoking cessation efforts and that GreenSmokeKloud has a vested interest in the outcome of those discussions."You might as well just give them a seat at the table," complained one smoking cessation researcher. "They may not be physically or consciously affecting the presentations, but subconsciously everyone knows that GreenSmokeKloud is sponsoring the conference and if we diss them in our presentations, it's unlikely that they will sponsor SRNT next year. It's inappropriate that whether SRNT can get the same sponsorship money next year may actually depend on what is said or not said in the scientific presentations."Another tobacco researcher agreed: "If the consensus at this conference is that vaping products are really not an effective smoking cessation tool and there is too much risk of youth addiction, you can bet that GreenSmokeKloud will back out of next year's conference. Let's not forget that this is a corporation whose primary goal is to make money. If their products are not cast in a positive light, they will have no incentive to return next year."Although each speaker discloses their conflicts of interest, some conference attendees have suggested that every speaker should be required to disclose that GreenSmokeKloud is a sponsor of the conference itself. According to Dr. Glanton: "It needs to be remembered that GreenSmokeKloud is casting a cloud on this entire conference. If a vaping company is sponsoring the conference, attendees should be reminded of that at the beginning of each and every presentation, especially if the talk is evaluating e-cigarettes in terms of their use in smoking cessation."The Rest of the StoryWait a minute. I apologize. I just received word that I got the story slightly wrong. GSK is indeed sponsoring the conference, but GSK doesn't stand for GreenSmokeKloud, it stands for GlaxoSmithKline, and it's not producing vaping products for smoking cessation, it's producing nicotine replacement products for smoking cessation. Also, Pfizer is another conference sponsor and they produce Chantix, a drug that is marketed for smoking cessation.Indeed, according to the official SRNT program, GlaxoSmithKline and Pfizer are both major sponsors of the conference.After the tobacco researchers quoted above were informed of my mistake, they all retracted their statements and told me that they saw nothing wrong with these pharmaceutical companies sponsoring the conference, even though they make products whose effectiveness is being discussed at the conference and their financial well-being depends on the consensus that may develop at the conference based on the content of the presentations that directly address their effectiveness."We don't see any conflict of interest here and the financial support of these corporations is necessary to continue to hold these important conferences," one of the researchers told me.Since being informed of my mistake, everything has calmed down and it is back to business as usual at the SRNT conference.Original author: Michael Siegel

A landmark study, published on January 25 in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, found no evidence that vaping is a gateway to smoking among youth. The data come from the largest, longitudinal study of youth smoking initiation -- the PATH (Population Assessment of Tobacco and Health) study -- and include two waves of observations on nearly 12,000 U.S. youth.The surveys asked numerous questions about both vaping and smoking behavior, including the frequency of these behaviors. It also assessed numerous risk factors for smoking that can be controlled for in multivariate analyses of smoking initiation rate differences between various groups. The baseline survey was conducted in 2013/2014 and the one-year follow-up survey occurred in 2014/2015.  The main reported finding of the study was that ever use of e-cigarettes at baseline is a risk factor for ever use of cigarettes at follow-up. This is consistent with the findings of several other studies.The Rest of the StoryBuried deep within the article is the rather startling, but most critically relevant finding of the entire study: The investigators were unable to report a single youth out of the 12,000 in the sample who was a cigarette naive, regular vaper at baseline who progressed to become a smoker at follow-up. Why? Because the number of these youth was so small that it was impossible to accurately quantify this number.Based on my own calculations from the data presented, out of the 12,000 youth, there were only 21 who were even past 30-day e-cigarette users at baseline (cigarette naive) who progressed even to ever smoking at follow-up. These youth reported using e-cigarettes only 1-5 days in the past 30 days at baseline, so it is not even clear that they were regular vapers. They literally could have tried an e-cigarette once 30 days earlier.It is possible that vaping was not a gateway to smoking for any of these 21 youth, but even if it was, they represent just 0.2% of the youth population. In addition, the study found that although ever use of e-cigarettes increased the risk of smoking initiation, recent use of e-cigarettes (within the past 30 days) did not increase the risk of smoking initiation. This finding is consistent with the hypothesis that youth who try e-cigarettes and do not particularly enjoy them such that they become regular users are the ones who are more likely to try smoking, but that youth who actually become vapers are not any more likely to subsequently try a real cigarette.The bottom line is that despite the widespread claims that vaping is a gateway to smoking initiation among youth, the most definitive study to date of this issue fails to provide any evidence to support that contention. If anything, it provides evidence suggesting that vaping acts as a kind of diversion that can keep some youth away from cigarette smoking.We will certainly need to await the results from future waves of the PATH study to have a clearer idea of the trajectory of youth vaping and smoking, but at the present time, I do not believe there is any evidence that vaping serves as a gateway to smoking among youth. In contrast, the evidence to date suggests that a culture of vaping is replacing, not enhancing, a culture of smoking.Original author: Michael Siegel

Based on the results of a cross-sectional study showing an association between using e-cigarettes and reporting that one has ever been told they have COPD (chronic obstructive lung disease), a number of researchers have essentially concluded that vaping causes COPD, and one researcher is telling the public that use of e-cigarettes increases one's risk of COPD just like cigarettes.The paper, published in Drug and Alcohol Dependence, reports the results of a cross-sectional study based on the 2016 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) survey in Hawaii. The outcome variable was reporting ever having been told that one has COPD. The main predictor variable was ever having used an e-cigarette. The key finding of the study was that: "there was a significant association of e-cigarette use with COPD among nonsmokers (AOR = 2.98, CI 1.51–5.88, p Original author: Michael Siegel

Later this week, a research study will be presented at the International Stroke Conference in Hawaii that purports to show that vaping increases the risk of heart attacks. In a recent post, I showed that this research is fatally flawed because it violates the basic principle in epidemiology that correlation does not equal causation. The study found a correlation between using e-cigarettes and ever having had a heart attack. The authors conclude that vaping must therefore increase heart attack risk. However, the more likely explanation is the opposite: smokers who experience a heart attack are more likely to try to quit smoking and therefore more likely to use e-cigarettes.As an exercise, I used the same data (the 2016 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance Survey) to show that by the same reasoning, making a quit attempt increases your risk of a heart attack.Here are some other factors that increase your risk for a heart attack, based on the 2016 BRFSS:Having health care insurance (67% increase in heart attack risk)Having a health care provider (174% increase)Going to the doctor annually for a routine physical exam (150% increase in risk)Having ever received the pneumonia vaccine (253% increase in risk)Ever having had a mammogram (52% increase in risk)So according to anti-vaping researcher logic, obtaining health care insurance, obtaining a health care provider, going to the doctor for routine exams, getting vaccinated for pneumonia, and having a mammogram all increase your risk of a heart attack.By the way, the same analysis reveals that compared to vaping only occasionally, you reduce your risk of a heart attack substantially if you vape every single day.In fact, daily vapers are at lower risk of having reported a heart attack than people who never vaped!Original author: Michael Siegel

According to the headline of a UPI news story from last week, vaping has been linked to an increased risk of having a heart attack. This research finding was reported worldwide, including a scary headline in London's Sunday Express reading: "New research claims vaping raises risk of deadly heart attacks and strokes."This finding is profoundly important because if e-cigarette use does indeed increase heart attack risk, then the role of vaping in harm reduction comes into serious question.The news headline stems from a paper that is being presented this week at the American Stroke Association’s International Stroke Conference in Hawaii.According to the news coverage, the researchers used cross-sectional data from the 2016 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance Survey (BRFSS) and found that ever use of e-cigarettes increased the risk of reporting ever having had a heart attack, while controlling for age, gender, body mass index, history of diabetes, and smoking status. The same was true for the risk of reporting ever had a stroke.While the abstract itself does not appear to be publicly available, the news articles report that the study found a 59% increase in heart attack risk associated with the use of e-cigarettes. According to one article: "The American Heart Association has subsequently cautioned the public against using e-cigarettes."The Rest of the StoryIt is irresponsible to use the results of this cross-sectional study to conclude (or even suggest) that e-cigarette use increases heart attack or stroke risk. Why? Because the study only assessed the relationship between "ever" having used e-cigarettes and "ever" having had a heart attack. The study has no information on which came first. In other words, it is entirely possible (and in fact quite likely) that the majority of respondents who reported having used e-cigarettes and having had a heart attack actually suffered the heart attack first and then subsequently started using electronic cigarettes because they were desperate to quit smoking after experiencing this life-threatening event.A similar study (this one using cross-sectional data from the National Health Interview Survey) was published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine last year and is subject to the same fatal flaw: it is highly likely that people who experienced a heart attack began using e-cigarettes in an attempt to quit smoking.Trying to Quit Smoking Increases Your Risk of Having a Heart AttackUsing the same methodology as these studies, I examined the relationship between trying to quit smoking and heart attack risk. I used the 2016 BRFSS and modeled the risk of having had a heart attack as a function of having tried to quit smoking (and succeeding for at least one day). I controlled for age, gender, body mass index, diabetes, and smoking status.The results:Making a serious quit attempt is associated with a significant increase in heart attack risk. It actually increases your heart attack risk by 41%.Obviously, what is going on here is not that quitting smoking increases your risk of having a heart attack. Instead, what is happening is that smokers who experience a heart attack are more likely to try to quit smoking.But the same reasoning used by researchers to conclude that vaping increases heart attack risk supports the conclusion that trying to quit smoking increases heart attack risk.For that matter, one could show that use of asthma inhalers is associated with an increased risk of having asthma, that use of insulin is associated with an increased risk of diabetes, or that the consumption of gluten-free food increases your risk for Celiac disease (caused by gluten allergy).For those who are curious, trying to quit smoking is associated with a 38% increase in the risk of stroke.Clearly, physicians should warn their smoking patients not to try to quit, as quitting appears to be associated with an increased risk of heart disease and stroke.Sadly, we don't have to recommend that physicians counsel smokers not to try to quit -- the American Lung Association is already doing that.Original author: Michael Siegel

On Wednesday, the New England Journal of Medicine published a new study that reported the results of a one-year randomized, clinical trial in which e-cigarettes were compared to nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) to aid smoking cessation. The study was conducted in the UK, and both treatments were accompanied by behavioral counseling. The result: "The 1-year abstinence rate was 18.0% in the e-cigarette group, as compared with 9.9% in the nicotine-replacement group (relative risk, 1.83; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.30 to 2.58)."This is the most definitive study yet on the effectiveness of electronic cigarettes for smoking cessation. It found that one-year smoking cessation rates with e-cigarettes were nearly twice those obtained using NRT. Although one must exercise caution in generalizing the results to the U.S., this evidence pretty much blows out of the water the claim being made by some anti-nicotine advocates that vaping actually inhibits smoking cessation.A previous clinical trial conducted in New Zealand had found that e-cigarettes were as effective as NRT for smoking cessation, but that trial used first-generation e-cigarettes that are not thought to be as effective as products currently on the market.This is great news for smokers, as it suggests that switching to vaping is another smoking cessation option that can be added to those already available. Certainly, for smokers who try to quit but fail with other therapies--like NRT--trying e-cigarettes is a strong and viable option. It may also be appropriate at this point for physicians to encourage smokers who want to quit and are open to trying e-cigarettes to make an attempt to switch to vaping even if they have not failed with other cessation approaches.The Rest of the StorySo here is what the American Lung Association had to say in response to the study:"The US Food and Drug Administration has not found any e-cigarette to be safe and effective in helping smokers quit. We only support methods that are FDA approved and regulated. Switching to e-cigarettes does not mean quitting. Quitting means truly ending the addiction to nicotine, which is very difficult."In other words, the American Lung Association is saying that despite this clinical trial demonstrating that e-cigarettes are probably much more effective than NRT for smoking cessation, they would rather smokers continue smoking than make a quit attempt using electronic cigarettes.The American Lung Association is stating that it does not "support" the use of e-cigarettes by smokers. This means that if a smoker is not willing to try NRT or a pill, then the American Lung Association would not recommend that they try quitting with e-cigarettes as an alternative.Not only that, but according to this statement, the American Lung Association will never support the use of e-cigarettes because it will only do so once the FDA approves vaping as a cessation method, which will not and cannot happen. The FDA cannot approve e-cigarettes for smoking cessation because they are recreational products and not drugs. No manufacturer has ever applied to the FDA for approval of a vaping product as a smoking cessation method, and it is unlikely that will happen any time soon.What could possibly explain why a public health organization that is supposed to be committed to improving lung health would actually discourage smokers from trying to quit using e-cigarettes, especially in the light of strong clinical trial evidence of their efficacy?The only way I can reconcile this is to question whether subconsciously, the American Lung Association has so much hatred for smoking and smokers that they would actually prefer that a smoker continue to smoke and get sick from that smoking if they are not willing to use an FDA-approved pharmaceutical product. This is, after all, exactly what the organization is expressing. And although the reasoning behind this position is clearly not conscious, the only reasoning that could possibly explain it is some sort of underlying hatred of smokers and a desire to punish them if they don't try to quit "the right way" -- the "right way", of course, being defined by the American Lung Association.It is important to note that the American Lung Association had a number of alternatives to its recommendation that smokers refrain from using e-cigarettes to quit. They could have recommended that NRT or pharmacotherapy remain a first-line approach, but that those smokers who fail to quit using NRT or pharmacotherapy may want to consider trying electronic cigarettes. They could have recommended that smokers switch to e-cigarettes and then try to wean themselves off the nicotine. Instead, the American Lung Association chose to make a blanket statement urging smokers not to try to quit using e-cigarettes.I had thought that the tobacco control movement had reached its lowest point, but I never could have imagined that it would come to this: a national tobacco control organization has told smokers that they are better off continuing to smoke than trying to quit using an electronic cigarette. I don't think we can get any lower than this.Original author: Michael Siegel