Brian King, the new director of the FDA Center for Tobacco Products, has offset a controversial discussion surrounding vape safety. In an AP interview, he shared sentiments in support of vaping over smoking. Brian quickly pointed out that there has been a public misconception that vaping is as dangerous as smoking. He said the misconception is not “consistent with the known science,” and conversely, vaping is “markedly less risk.” Vaping is more safer than smoking. Even with its authority and duty to create proper awareness to the public, Brian expresses concern that the agency has zero plans to correct the looming misconception.
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The Teen Vaping Scare
Over the last couple of years, there has been a scare about the “increasing” vaping behavior among teens. The scare is undoubtedly out of proportion. According to statistics, smoking and vaping have declined since 2019 (from 7% to 5.5% and 28.7% to 17.4%, respectively). This comes even without policy action by the Maine government to ban vaping. Even with these statistics, the agency still advocates that vaping is reversing the declining smoking behavior, and therefore a ban must be put in place. On the other hand, there has been a surge in sexual assault among teens from11% to 14%, alcohol consumption before 13 years rose from 23.8% to 25.6%, and marijuana smoking before age 13 rose from 16.6% to 18.5%. From the statistics, the vaping scare is a deliberate misconception, and evidently, the Maine government has more pressing issues on hand to protect future generations.
Misinformation fuels public misconception
The anti-vaping advocates often set out headlines like “Popcorn lung!” “Vaping epidemic!” “2 million vaping teens.” These campaigns do not report the entire story and therefore are biased. They fail to report that vaping has declined in the last couple of years, and the 2 million vaping teens include those who have done it once. Also, they will not publish that the 4.9% of frequently vaping teens would otherwise be smoking.
Also, if “Public health researchers” were so concerned about public health, they should inform the public that vaping is associated with a “39% percent less risk of MI when compared to traditional smoking” without leaving out the fact that the vapers who were compared with “never-vapers” were previously smokers.
We vape we vote tour 2022
On 27th September 2022, CASAA announced the We Vape We Vote 2022 Tour! CASAA, which is the American Vapor Manufacturers and Americans for Tax Reform association, will be advocating that every American has a right to use vaping to quit smoking cigarettes. A ban on vaping will deprive the American people of autonomy. According to CASAA, critical health decisions should be made by individuals, not FDA, not the CDC, and definitely not the controlling members of congress. The tour aims to rally leaders and the American people behind a powerful harm reduction tool for smokers across the US.
Vaping is not as dangerous as smoking. The FDA should create awareness to the public to this effect. There is a need for more research on the long-term effects of vaping, but from available evidence, it is safer than smoking. The government should also shift its focus to more pressing issues like marijuana smoking and alcohol consumption among teens.
CASAA’s, We Vape We Vote tour is a step in the right direction to ensure Americans have autonomy over their health decisions.
