Public Misinformation

Increasing rhetoric and false statements are preventing progress in the debate about vaping.

By Josh Church

A new year and still the same tired rhetoric. With anti-vaping groups being dangerously considered by many as the defenders of public health, we are moving too close to something we have all seen, experienced and been defined by in the history of the United States.

Go back almost 100 years and a shockingly similar story was just being written: In the 1920s and 1930s, a campaign utilized fear and misinformation to push for regulations in favor of those who opposed cannabis and an endless amount of other “narcotics.” The campaign was so extremely effective that it took the better part of a century for public opinion to mature intellectually. It was the age of “reefer madness.”

When you compare the propaganda used by marijuana antagonists during the cannabis prohibition period, it is unmistakably like what we are currently seeing regarding nicotine and the wildfire of misinformation that is taking our country by force. George Santayana explained it best when he said, “Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it.” Have we not moved past allowing nonfactual propaganda and blatant misinformation to drastically influence our opinions, emotions and, most of all, our decision-making?

It is of the utmost importance that 2019 be a year of defining the conversation among vapor industry stakeholders, advocacy groups and consumers. We must come together and create a platform based on substantiated science with the purpose of educating people inundated by bad science and opinion. It is important that we are passionate but not emotional. It is too easy to discredit information delivered in a way that could be misconstrued as combative. If we accomplish this, we may have an equal, united voice against the anti-vaping and anti-nicotine zealots.

We must realize that there is a very large and discrete change happening on the opposing side. We have moved past the era of people and groups being able to say that e-cigarettes have not been studied for long-term health effects, or that the vapor industry exists unregulated or even that nicotine on its own is largely the cause for tobacco-related diseases. These things are blatantly untrue.

During the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) youth cessation hearing held in January (see “Angle of Attack”), I witnessed a woman from one of these so-called public health groups stand in front of the FDA and make a statement that e-cigarettes have never been proven to help people quit smoking combustible cigarettes and that there are no long-term studies regarding the health effects of e-cigarettes.

It was also upsetting to see the people on both sides of the aisle bringing more emotion and opinion to the table rather than factual evidence. While I wholeheartedly understand the worries and concerns from parents and administrators on the front lines of the youth initiation issue, making unsubstantiated claims benefits no one, especially youth. We are dealing with situations that have absolutely zero room for emotions. The industry and its antagonists can no longer use anecdotal evidence to back their respective opinions.

All parties have been doing this for years, and it has gotten us nowhere. There is no longer an excuse for these types of responses. The research has been done. There are thousands of studies that have been published on e-cigarettes and vaporizers. If you truly feel you are a defender of your right to vape, please take a little time and educate yourself. Review both the good and the bad research.

It does more harm than good when advocates promise friends and family that there is no risk involved with e-cigarettes, telling them that they are 100 percent healthy. It’s not our job to make people believe these products are without their own set of inherent risks. We must educate them with the information that is available. If we do this properly, we can help adult smokers form educated opinions about vapor products, and they can then spread their knowledge.

It has become a consistent occurrence at many health conferences, smoking ordinance meetings and other public forums where vaping is the subject being discussed. The anti-vaping groups seemingly have nothing to lose and do anything to make sure their voices are heard.

It’s hard to believe that there is a motive larger than the critical matter of public health. That opinion is challenged when groups of researchers, such as Stanton Glantz of the University of California, San Francisco, attack the vapor industry with false facts and fearmongering. Glantz doesn’t mention that his group received a massive amount of funding from the FDA in 2018 for research regarding e-cigarettes. He is hired to be the opposition. For example, his recent tweet: “Using e-cigarettes increases exposure to toxic chemicals. For most users: They would be better off just smoking.”

His purely fictitious statement, directed at people who may not understand enough about e-cigarettes, causes vapers to question their choice. In fact, the statement should be considered criminal because it could cost human lives by sending former smokers back to combustible cigarettes. Yet, the FDA allows it to go on.

We have seen regulators act swiftly and effectively in other industries where a company or research group publicizes any unsubstantiated claims for health benefit, and this situation is no different. I would even say it’s more dangerous as they push people toward a product that is known to kill 50 percent of its users.

Sadly, the whole atmosphere surrounding nicotine has become incredibly dangerous and polarizing. You can no longer have a moderate opinion toward either side of the bench. If you support an adult’s choice to be able to use vapor products, you also support addicting children to nicotine. You cannot lobby for stricter regulations for next-generation tobacco products without advocating for the complete elimination of recreational nicotine use.

This must stop. I have reached out to many health groups as well as other organizations concerned about vapor products and youth initiation. The outreach was done with the hope of providing some understanding to what they are witnessing. With this information, we intend to make the most educated decisions on how to assist and hopefully end the reported epidemic of youth vaping.

Too many times in this process I have been greeted with bared teeth and the same common response: “We are not letting the fox into the hen house.” While I understand the cautiousness of these groups, I also believe that they are doing an entire nation of youth a disservice by not working with the people that know these products better than anyone else.

My hope is that one day soon we can all sit down and have an open and educated conversation to solve these important issues. We need to draw back the proverbial curtain with the hope of seeing what’s happening that is creating this problem of youth uptake. If we don’t, we will only continue to make drastic decisions based on what many consider to be anecdotal information.

We live in an era of mass information. It’s sad that when it comes to public health regarding nicotine, we are reliving the era of McCarthyism. In today’s world, anyone and everyone can have a public forum to advance their agenda, even if it’s evil. Do we as a nation no longer question the Stanton Glantzs of the world who spew lies while standing on a stack of taxpayer money?

It is easy to demonize “Big Tobacco” and lump everyone in the vapor industry into that box. However, the largest portion of the vapor industry is made up of businesses that have existed for fewer than 10 years. It would be irresponsible to immediately assume that all these companies operate under the same archaic agenda built by tobacco companies in the past.

The vapor industry is young and has never been given the opportunity to prove its mission to end the death caused by combustible cigarettes. Instead, the industry carries the burden of generations of misinformation and disillusion from those vehemently opposed to the tobacco industry. E-cigarettes were created as a true alternative for adult cigarette smokers, and these products continue to be the only disruptive space for those seeking safer options than combustible tobacco products.