Category: Research

Vaping and ED Study has Several Potential Data Flaws
It appears there’s another negative consequence of vaping that may not be true. Alongside bone damage, depression and smoke, vapers can add erectile dysfunction to list of medical maladies supported by faulty research, according to the American Council on Science and Health. Major media outlets have broadcast the results of the suspect study globally.
Credit: Catalin Pop
A major issue with the ED study is that participants were classified as current someday (“i.e., not every day or occasional”) or daily vapers, or smokers if they consumed cigarettes “every day or some days.” Beyond this self-reported information, the researchers didn’t know how much or which e-liquids the vapers in their study used, nor did they know how many cigarettes each smoker consumed.
“This is a common problem in vaping research: e-cigarette use is defined so broadly that there’s no way to establish a dose-response relationship between vaping and the health outcome in question,” Cameron English writes.
Men were similarly classified as having ED based on a 1-item question: “Many men experience problems with sexual intercourse. How would you describe your ability to get and keep an erection adequate for satisfactory intercourse?” As a result, the study may have erroneously identified participants as having ED who actually don’t or missed others with mild symptoms. The researchers summed up the problem with these data gaps towards the end of the paper, writing: “… the analyses were based on both self-reported covariate data, ENDS use status, and ED status, all of which are subject to misclassification, recall, and social desirability bias …”
The recent study, published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, found those who reported daily e-cig use were 2.2 times more likely to report having erectile dysfunction compared to men who had never vaped, regardless of their other risk factors. In a smaller sample of men younger than 65 with normal BMIs and no history of cardiovascular disease, the trend persisted: vapers were 2.4 times more likely to experience ED compared to non-vapers.
Additionally, another critical issue is that the study only provided a snapshot of people who reported vaping and experiencing ED. “There’s nothing wrong with this cross-sectional study design; it can help answer a number of important questions, but it’s not useful if you’re trying to assess the long-term risks of a given exposure, vaping in this case,” English states. “To highlight one potential issue, did the participants develop ED before they began vaping? If so, that means electronic cigarettes aren’t to blame, though this study can’t account for that possibility.”
The researchers also did not question whether other factors contribute to the frequency of ED reported in the present study, such as smoking combustible cigarettes. “Nevertheless, this study failed to detect an association between cigarette smoking and ED, also when accounting for current daily smoking versus nondaily smoking (data not shown),” the researchers wrote.
However, nicotine has long been called a factor in erectile disfunction. Men who smoked more than 20 cigarettes daily had a 60 percent higher risk of erectile dysfunction, compared to men who never smoked, according to the American Heart Association (AHA). Smoking, according to the AHA, and erectile dysfunction have often been associated — individually — with plaque build-up in the arteries, called atherosclerosis.
December 20, 2021
U.S. Youth Nicotine Vaping Down Significantly in 2021

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Nicotine vaping among U.S. adolescents was down significant in 2021, according to the most recent Monitoring the Future survey of substance use behaviors and related attitudes among eighth, 10^th, and 12^th graders in the United States.
Among eighth graders, 12.1 percent reported vaping nicotine in the past year in 2021, compared to 16.6 percent in 2020. Among 10th graders, 19.5 percent reported vaping nicotine in the past year in 2021, compared to 30.7 percent in 2020. For 12^th graders, the share reporting nicotine vaping in 2021 was 26.6 percent, compared to 34.5 percent in 2020.
Youth cigarette smoking fell to record lows this year, with past-month smoking rates of 4.1 percent for 12th graders, 1.8 percent for 10th graders and 1.1 percent for eighth graders.
Youth consumption of alcohol and illicit substances declined as well. “We have never seen such dramatic decreases in drug use among teens in just a one-year period. These data are unprecedented and highlight one unexpected potential consequence of the Covid-19 pandemic, which caused seismic shifts in the day-to-day lives of adolescents,” said Nora Volkow, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse in a statement.
Despite the decrease in consumption, anti-vaping activists insisted that youth vaping remains a problem. “While this is a decline since youth e-cigarette rates peaked in 2019, it is nearly the same level as in 2018 (20.9 percent) when the U.S. Surgeon General, the FDA and other public health authorities declared youth e-cigarette use to be a public health epidemic,” said Matthew Myers, president of the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids in a statement.
The authors of the Monitoring the Future survey said this year’s results should be treated with caution due to the Covid-19 pandemic and remote learning. “Students who took the survey at home may not have had the same privacy or may not have felt as comfortable truthfully reporting substance use as they would at school, when they are away from their parents,” they noted.
December 16, 2021
Nicotine May Cause Erectile Dysfunction in Men
A new study suggests that men who vape nicotine are more than twice as likely to experience erectile dysfunction compared to those who don’t vape. In the first effort to study the relationship between vaping and sexual health, researchers analyzed self-reported data from more than 13,000 men aged 20 and older surveyed in the national Population Assessment of Tobacco and Health Study.
Credit: Paolese
Nicotine has long been called a factor in erectile disfunction. Men who smoked more than 20 cigarettes daily had a 60 percent higher risk of erectile dysfunction, compared to men who never smoked, according to the American Heart Association (AHA). Smoking, according to the AHA, and erectile dysfunction have often been associated — individually — with plaque build-up in the arteries, called atherosclerosis.
According to the latest study published Wednesday in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, those who reported daily e-cig use were 2.2 times more likely to report having erectile dysfunction compared to men who had never vaped, regardless of their other risk factors. In a smaller sample of men younger than 65 with normal BMIs and no history of cardiovascular disease, the trend persisted: vapers were 2.4 times more likely to experience ED compared to non-vapers.
While some may view vaping as a healthier alternative to cigarettes, consuming nicotine in excess will always come with risks, lead author Omar El Shahawy, MD, told Insider. “Overall, e-cigarettes are likely less harmful than smoking cigarettes to the degree that they substitute cigarette smoking,” El Shahawy, assistant professor in the Department of Population Health at NYU Langone, wrote in an email to Insider. “For men who smoke and want to switch because vaping is less harmful, they should try to limit their vaping because it is simply not risk free.”
December 1, 2021
New Research Hopes to Help End War on Nicotine
A new research paper attempts to clarify the confusion surrounding nicotine consumption and the role it plays in the diseases caused by smoking. The paper, released by the Consumer Choice Center, outlines six main reasons why the “war on nicotine is pointless” and should end.
Credit: kues1
“Instead of celebrating declining numbers of smokers and far fewer deaths, many governments, public health agencies and anti-smoking activists have been on the hunt for new enemies,” the researchers wrote. “They decided to scapegoat nicotine, and as a result, the fight against smoking gradually transformed into a fight against nicotine. Such an approach has dire consequences: fewer people switching to less harmful alternatives.”
The paper was co-authored by Michael Landl, director of the World Vapers’ Alliance, and Maria Chaplia, research manager at the Consumer Choice Center This six reasons listed to stop the war against nicotine the paper recommends are:

People consume nicotine, but they die from smoking

Nicotine in patches and gums is not a problem — it is neither (a problem) when vaped nor in a pouch

Addiction is complex and not solved by a war on nicotine

Nicotine makes some people smarter, stronger and more attractive

Misconceptions about nicotine are hindering progress

Prohibition never works
“Put practical solutions first: to reduce smoking rates, public health needs to make use of all available possibilities. People who cannot quit smoking should be encouraged to switch to less harmful alternatives. Nicotine is not the main problem when it comes to smoking, the toxins are,” the researchers recommend to policy makers. “Regulation must be drafted according to the actual risk of a product. Vaping or snus are less harmful than smoking, hence must be treated differently. Nicotine doesn’t become a poison when delivered through vaping. When nicotine isn’t a problem in gums and patches, it can’t be a bigger problem in vaping. The moral panic when it comes to nicotine must end.
“Addiction is complex and is not solved with a war on nicotine. When it comes to addiction, public health policies should not single out a single substance. Potential benefits of nicotine must be explored and unbiased
scientific endeavors must be ensured. Public policy must accept that many people use nicotine recreationally. A war on nicotine will fail like the war on drugs or alcohol prohibition failed. Public misconceptions about nicotine must be fought. They discourage people from switching to less harmful alternatives and therefore hurt public health.”
November 29, 2021
Study: People Bullied and Fired From Jobs For Vaping
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British vapers have been bullied and even fired for vaping in the workplace, according to a new study carried out by the online vaping retailer E-Cigarette Direct.
The company surveyed around 2,000 vapers to understand their attitudes and experiences to a host of employment issues around vaping.
It is thought to be the most comprehensive study of its type to be conducted in the U.K, coming just weeks after the government announced patients could soon be prescribed e-cigarettes on the NHS for the first time.
The E-Cigarette Direct Vaping in the Workplace Study found:
13 people lost their jobs through vaping, with men (nine) twice as likely as women (four) to get fired.
There were significant levels of discrimination aimed at vapers in the workplace. Two hundred and twenty-four vapers admitted to being discriminated against, with the northeastern U.K. a particular hotspot where they feel they are being treated differently.
Many vapers have also been bullied at work, with almost one in 10 respondents working in the Real Estate sector alone lifting the lid on this issue.
“It is quite shocking to learn people have actually lost their jobs due to vaping,” said James Dunworth, chairman of E-Cigarette Direct.” It is also concerning many people have experienced bullying and discrimination.
“Vaping in the workplace is a little-explored area so we devised our study to help understand the challenges faced by vapers in the working world, and gather data to help employers make informed decisions to aid staff retention, health and morale.
“We spend at least a third of our waking lives at work and our working environment has a huge influence on our health and happiness—so these issues are hugely significant for people who wish to vape while at work.”
In contrast to smoking, people in the U.K. are legally allowed to vape inside. E-Cigarette Direct says there is no evidence passive vapor causes harm to bystanders and says the U.K government actively encourages employers to provide a smoke-free area for vapers.
However, E-Cigarette Direct’s research found 75 percent of vapers are allowed to vape at work only in dedicated smoking areas.
The company says this is in direct contravention of Public Health England guidance (now U.K Health Security Agency), which states, “…vapers should not be required to use the same space as smokers, as this could undermine their ability to quit smoking and stay smokefree, particularly among those most heavily addicted.”
November 26, 2021
New Report Questions WHO’s Anti-Vaping Stance
A new report, published today, raises major questions about the anti-vaping arguments and approach of the World Health Organization and billionaire philanthropist Michael Bloomberg.
The WHO and Bloomberg have both made clear their opposition to safer nicotine alternatives despite growing evidence of lower harm and efficacy for smoking cessation.
The WHO’s tobacco control program is funded in part by Bloomberg Philanthropies. In July of this year, the two parties restated their joint position at the launch of the WHO Report on the Global Tobacco Epidemic, 2021: Addressing New and Emerging Products. In this report, the WHO emphasized that electronic nicotine delivery systems are “a threat to tobacco control,” are harmful, and should be banned or highly regulated. Bloomberg, in his capacity as the WHO Global Ambassador for Noncommunicable Diseases and Injuries, and founder of Bloomberg Philanthropies, stated that tobacco companies are marketing new products such as e-cigarettes to “hook another generation on nicotine.”
The International Network of Nicotine Consumer Organizations (INNCO) has now compiled a new dossier, titled, Bloomberg, WHO and the Vaping Misinfodemic, containing statements and evidence from healthcare experts, leading academics, politicians, respected journalists and research organizations that question the stance of the WHO and Bloomberg on safer nicotine alternatives to smoking and the relationship between the two parties.
This dossier comes just a week after the U.K. Department of Health and Social Care announced that e-cigarettes could be prescribed on the National Health Service, a world first. That move by the U.K. government provoked significant public debate around the polar opposite views towards safer nicotine alternatives, such as vaping, held by the British government and the WHO.
The dossier also comes as the Parties to the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control convene to discuss tobacco and nicotine policy.
The outcomes from COP9 discussions will determine how international tobacco control policies are implemented at a country level across the globe to address the fact that 1.1 billion people still smoke worldwide and 8 million die every year from tobacco-related diseases.
The dossier highlights nine reasons why serious questions need to be raised about WHO and Bloomberg’s outright opposition to safer nicotine alternatives to deadly smoking. High on the list is their failure to distinguish between smoking addiction and nicotine dependence.

They are shifting the harm focus from smoking to tobacco to nicotine—where it obviously doesn’t belong.
Charles A Gardner, executive director, INNCO
“Effectively, through this failure they are shifting the harm focus from smoking to tobacco to nicotine—where it obviously doesn’t belong—nicotine does not cause cancer, heart or lung disease. Smoking does,” says Charles A Gardner, executive director at INNCO.
This is backed up in the dossier by expert views on the profound difference between cigarette smoke and the drug, nicotine, including those expressed by Jamie Hartmann-Boyce, senior research fellow in health behaviors at the University of Oxford; Professor John Britton, emeritus professor of epidemiology University of Nottingham and special advisor to the Royal College of Physicians on Tobacco; Adam Afriye MP; and a joint statement by 15 past-Presidents of the world’s top professional society in the field of tobacco control, the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco.
The report also scrutinizes the WHO’s role in COP events, with evidence suggesting that it is very controlling in terms of the agenda and attendance. Unlike COP26, these tobacco control COP meetings are described as “all but excluding the media,” “well-known for the routine ejection of the public from proceedings,” and “notoriously secretive.”
The dossier also reports on claims that only tobacco control nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) allowed to attend are those who subscribe to the WHO’s tobacco harm reduction denialist stance. The U.K. Parliament’s All-Party Parliamentary Group for Vaping recently issued a warning about the participation at COP9 of The Union, a major global NGO funded by Bloomberg Philanthropies.
“The Union [International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease] recently issued a major report titled Where Bans are Best: Why Low- and Middle-Income Countries Must Prohibit E-cigarette and HTP Sales to Truly Tackle Tobacco. The Union is one of Bloomberg Philanthropies’ two top tobacco control grantees—the other is the U.S.-based Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids,” says Gardner.
“We are a good case in point. INNCO, which represents and supports the rights of 98 million adults worldwide, who use safer nicotine to avoid toxic forms of tobacco, has once again been denied Observer Status at COP9 (as it was denied at COP8, and at COP7).”
The Bloomberg, WHO and the Vaping Misinfodemic report calls for:
Governments around the world to collectively challenge the WHO and Bloomberg’s current prohibitionist position on safer nicotine alternatives, and to demand to know why, in the face of 8 million tobacco-related deaths every year, the tobacco control field is the only field of public health that rejects harm reduction.
The formation of a global independent Tobacco Harm Reduction Working Group comprised of independent scientists, global health experts, specialist academics, and people who use safer nicotine (ex-smokers)
Withdrawal of funding from and/or boycott of future Conference Of Parties (COP) tobacco control meetings until the WHO considers the overwhelming evidence that safer nicotine alternatives such as vapes, snus, nicotine pouches and heat-not-burn help smokers quit, and save lives
Complete transparency in all tobacco control funding, grants and collaborations involving the WHO and Bloomberg
A full independent and international review into current and past tobacco control dialogue between Bloomberg Philanthropies, Bloomberg-funded NGOs and national governments in LMICs following allegations in the Philippines that the country’s Food & Drug Administration received funds from Bloomberg groups to support the implementation of the national tobacco control program
A complete review of the WHO’s public web-based Q&A on e-cigarettes, which has been described as “astonishingly bad”
The dossier also spotlights the EVALI (e-cigarette, or vaping, product-associated lung injuries) crisis of 2019. The U.S.-only outbreak of lung injuries caused by bootleg THC (cannabinoid) vape oils “cut” with one or more adulterants was wrongly reported to be caused by legal nicotine vaping.
According to the report, the EVALI outbreak triggered Bloomberg Philanthropies to invest $160 million over a three year period to prohibit all e-cigarette flavors other than tobacco flavor. EVALI is also still incorrectly referenced by the WHO in its Q&A on vaping products in response to the question as to whether e-cigarettes cause lung injuries.
However, by early 2020, U.S. authorities identified vitamin E acetate, a cutting agent used in some bootleg THC vaping oils—mainly in US states where cannabis remains illegal—as the primary cause of the outbreak.
As reported in the dossier and which escaped the attention of the world’s media, last month, 75 global experts with no tobacco industry ties, including seven individuals who have served as president of the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco, wrote to the CDC’s Director asking her to change the name “EVALI” because it fails to alert THC vapers to their potential risks, and it misleads smokers and nicotine vapers to believe e-cigarettes were the cause.
“I’ve spent 30 years in global health, including three years as a senior advisor on research to the WHO. For most of my career, I worked on HIV, TB, malaria, dengue, rabies, nutrition and child health issues. So, I’ve never seen anything as crazy as what’s happening now in tobacco control. What troubles me is how few people outside of my ‘little’ echo chamber, the community of millions of ex-smokers who use safer nicotine, knows what’s going on,” says Gardner.
“There are 1.1 billion smokers now in the world, a situation that has barely changed in the last 20 years. The anti-harm reduction conservatism of the WHO and Bloomberg is not working.
“That’s why we are calling for a global response in the form of a tobacco harm reduction working group and international governments collectively questioning and challenging the WHO and Bloomberg’s prohibitionist and evidence-denialist approach to safer nicotine. Because we are ex-smokers who use safer nicotine. We see what’s happening, and we have great empathy for smokers and ex-smokers who vape.
“The goal is simple. Save lives. Only the starting assumptions and strategies to get there differ. These can be debated. But this debate is unethical if it does not include people who have, themselves, made the transition from smoking to not-smoking, using tobacco harm reduction products (nicotine patches, nicotine gum & lozenges, nicotine vapes, nicotine pouches, snus and HPTs).”
“Our future policy recommendations will focus on the need to change research priorities, just as HIV/AIDS activists sought to do in the 1990s. Global tobacco control research priorities today are skewed towards finding harms of alternative nicotine products while ignoring—or not even exploring—benefits, in particular the potential therapeutic benefits of nicotine. The health benefits of medical marijuana are now recognized because of research. The potential therapeutic benefits of psilocybin are now being explored (e.g., for PTST, and even for smoking cessation). However, research to explore those potential benefits was locked in amber for 30 years because of prohibitionist drug laws.”
November 9, 2021
England: Number of Young Smokers Up During Lockdown
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The number of young adults who smoke in England rose by about a quarter in the first lockdown, reports The Guardian, citing new research from University College London (UCL) and the University of Sheffield said. At the same time, the number of people who quit smoking nearly doubled across all groups.
“The first lockdown was unprecedented in the way it changed people’s day-to-day lives. We found that many smokers took this opportunity to stop smoking, which is fantastic,” said Sarah Jackson, the lead author and a principal research fellow at UCL.
“However, the first lockdown was also a period of great stress for many people, and we saw rates of smoking and risky drinking increase among groups hardest hit by the pandemic.”
While the widespread belief that smoking and drinking relieved stress could be a factor in the apparent increased prevalence among people aged 18 to 34 years, the researchers pointed out that their data did not indicate what the causes may be.
Doug Mutter
Doug Mutter, director at U.K. vaping specialist VPZ, warned that the country is now in danger of missing its 2030 smoke free targets.
“Smoking statistics are continuing to rise as the pandemic has triggered an increase in smoking rates and the public health problem has been compounded by funding cuts for NHS stop smoking services and local support groups,” he said.
“There has been a lack of funding and joined up strategy to tackle smoking and we are now sleep-walking into another public health crisis with a new generation of smokers being consigned to an early death or serious disease.
Mutter pointed to a new report from Royal College of Physicians Tobacco Advisory Group, which backs vaping as an effective treatment for tobacco dependency and recommends that it should be included and encouraged in all treatment pathways.
A VPZ consumer survey from September 2020 found that among the 14,000 smokers served:
25 percent of people said they were unable to buy their vaping products because of store closures.
26 percent of smokers said they has increased the number of cigarettes they smoked during lockdown
65 percent of people claimed they received no advice during lockdown of the best ways to quit smoking, through either NHS or online resources.
58 percent of people said they did not feel healthier coming out of the initial lockdown.
45 percent of people said their mental health was affected during the lockdown.
August 26, 2021
Study Debunks Link Between Heart Attacks and Vaping
Vaping products are not associated with increased heart attack incidence among people without a history of smoking combustible cigarettes, according to a new study. Published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, researchers also concluded that three previous studies claiming a link between e-cigarettes and heart disease wrongly included those who previously smoked cigarettes or were using both vaping and combustible products. One paper even included participants who had heart attacks before they had ever vaped.
“Previous researchers confused their own models’ assumptions that these risks were independent with the idea that their analyses validated the presence of independent risks,” the researchers wrote. “There is no reliable evidence that e-cigarette use is associated with ever having had a myocardial infarction among never smokers.”
Authored by Michael Siegel, a community health sciences professor at Boston University, and University of California, Berkeley, business professor Clayton Critcher, analyzed data from 175,546 respondents to the annual National Health Interview Survey from 2014 to 2019. They found that daily e-cigarette use was only associated with higher heart attack incidence among people who were also currently smoking combustible cigarettes (duel users)—and that there was no evidence at all for increased risk among vapers who had never smoked combustible cigarettes.
Credit: NDABCREATIVITY
The researchers state that the initial study had drawn its conclusions about a perceived cause (vaping) and effect (heart attack) without factoring in a key variable (smoking). Critcher and Siegel acknowledge that a more thorough analysis of previous research would have noted that e-cigarettes are relatively new, limiting the ability to assess long-term health effects and make comparisons with combustible tobacco smoking, in an article with Filter. However, the findings of previous research that e-cigarette use in of itself causes heart attacks is fundamentally flawed.
A 2018 study, also published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, claimed that daily vapers increased their odds of heart attack. However, the study only included participants who used both e-cigarettes and combustible cigarettes—none who used e-cigarettes alone. Suspicious of that methodology, a different group of researchers published a reply, arguing the importance of examining the purported link among people who had never smoked combustible cigarettes. Authors of the original study then published a reply to that reply, arguing that such a distinction wasn’t necessary.
In the meantime, two (one, two) other papers were published based on the original paper’s claims, lending further harmful legitimacy to the idea of a link between e-cigs and heart attacks, according to Kevin Garcia writing for Filter.
The second of those two papers was coauthored by the former prominent tobacco harm reduction opponent Stanton Glantz. It was retracted in 2020 for basing its claim that vaping caused heart attacks on evidence that included heart attacks from before the participants had even started vaping. Three weeks after the American Heart Association’s journal retracted the vaping study, academics and health experts began pushing for another influential peer-reviewed medical journal to retract another Glantz study.
August 24, 2021
Georgia State Begins Aerosol Research Study for ENDS
A research initiative on the potential harmful effects of electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS) by Chemical Insights, an institute of Underwriters Laboratories and Georgia State University’s School of Public Health are now underway. The collaboration will characterize airborne particulate aerosols and volatile organic chemicals released during e-cigarette use and determine human exposure levels and toxicity for users and bystanders, according to a press release.
Essentra Scientific Services’ new laboratory is dedicated to testing electronic cigarettes.
“With a focus on public health and safety benefits, our research findings will identify specific particles and chemicals that infiltrate the lungs of a user so that steps can be taken to reduce human health risks,” said Marilyn Black, vice president and senior technical advisor with Chemical Insights.
The release states that one contributing factor to youth use of ENDS is the perception that ENDS are a safer alternative to cigarettes and other traditional tobacco products. “However, a series of studies have proven pulmonary toxicity in e-cigarettes and a link to negative impacts on adolescents’ respiratory health,” the release states. “ENDS lags in product safety testing for numerous proprietary liquids and aerosol delivery methods available in the expanding marketplace.”
The study will reportedly provide scientifically sound data to inform policy makers, healthcare providers, manufacturers and consumers of potential health risks and approaches for product usage and label warnings to educate consumers of potential respiratory hazards, according to Roby Greenwald, assistant professor in the School of Public Health and co-principal investigator of the study. “We’re looking at multiple liquids and aerosol delivery methods that are readily available to better understand toxicity and their impact on human health.”
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is currently evaluating the harm-reduction potential of vapor products through its premarket tobacco product application (PMTA) process. The regulatory agency has stated that ENDS are safer than combustible tobacco products, but do not come without risk.
Research findings will begin to be released in fall 2021.
August 13, 2021
Study: TikTok Must Age Restrict Access to Vape Videos
A study of vaping videos on TikTok by Australian researchers found that there is an “urgent need” for age restrictions to reduce teens’ exposure to videos that positively portray vaping. University of Queensland researchers analysed e-cigarette content posted by TikTok users globally and are now calling for tighter regulations to prevent nicotine products being promoted to underage users of the video-sharing platform.
Credit: Tashatuvango
The study, published in the journal Tobacco Control, evaluated the content of 808 popular vaping videos that had been collectively viewed more than 1.5 billion times as of November 2020. The videos had a median count of 1 million views each, according to a story posted by The Guardian.
The videos that portrayed e-cigarette use positively comprised 63 percent of the total and were viewed more than 1.1 billion times, while neutral depictions accounted for 24 percent. The researchers estimated that a quarter of the people in the videos appeared to be younger than 18, while 71 percent were male.
“The use of comedy, lifestyle references, nicotine addiction references, vaping tricks and ‘how to’ tutorials may create social norms around vaping and increase its social acceptance,” the researchers concluded. “Considering vaping-related videos are widely accessible on TikTok, there is an urgent need to consider age restrictions to reduce youth uptake.”
Tianze Sun, a PhD student at UQ and the study’s first author, said the researchers were interested in looking at how e-cigarette use was portrayed on TikTok, given the app’s popularity among young people. “Because it’s a relatively new platform, they also can potentially lack in regulations when it comes to effective age restrictions,” she said.
July 27, 2021