Tobacco Research Leaders Call for a Reset of the Vaping Debate

With less than a month before the FDA is expected to make decisions on authorizing vaping products, a new paper from a group of respected longtime tobacco control leaders could fundamentally change the conversation around vaping. It’s intended to do just that.

The paper argues that public understanding of vaping has been poisoned by powerful interests that have exaggerated the risks of e-cigarettes to youth and largely ignored the potential benefits of vaping for adults who smoke. The authors say that adult smokers as a group have become invisible to the tobacco control groups and media that control the one-sided conversation.

The paper, published today in the American Journal of Public Health, was co-authored by 15 past presidents of the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco (SRNT), led by University of Michigan School of Public Health emeritus professor and dean Kenneth Warner. Warner presented a summary of the findings earlier this year at the U.S. E-Cigarette Summit.

The authors are among the most respected in the tobacco control field. In addition to Warner, they include Neal Benowitz, Dorothy Hatsukami, Nancy Rigotti and Robert West—all household names in the tobacco control world. None of them can be accused of being tobacco or vaping shills, and none can be dismissed as non-experts.

While the primary value of the paper is in the reputations of the people who wrote it, it also serves as a wonderfully concise literature review, presenting both-sides evidence on most of the major vaping issues of the day in a format easy to read for deadline-bound reporters.

The authors cite the growing evidence in both clinical and population studies that vaping helps smokers quit cigarettes; they describe recent drops in cigarette sales that correspond with increases in vaping adoption; and they note that policies (like taxes) that reduce the appeal of vaping increase smoking, making the two practices economic substitutes.

They dispute the evidence that vaping is causing an “epidemic” of youth nicotine addiction, citing studies that show no population-level increase in nicotine dependence, and very little frequent vaping among tobacco-naive youth. And they cite studies showing that “vaping likely diverts more young people from smoking than encourages them to smoke.”

The authors are cautious regarding the flavor debate, but they acknowledge that flavors are important to the former smokers who quit with vaping. “While flavor bans could reduce youth interest in e-cigarettes," they write, "they could also reduce adult smokers’ vaping to quit smoking.” They suggest limiting flavored vaping products to adult-only retail outlets like vape shops.

While no one is called out by name, Warner and his colleagues are genuinely bothered by the tactics of the Bloomberg-funded Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids and their allies that have excluded any consideration for the lives of adults who smoke from their political crusade. Public health agencies like the FDA and CDC haven’t been much better.

“While evidence suggests that vaping is currently increasing smoking cessation,” they write, “the impact could be much larger if the public health community paid serious attention to vaping’s potential to help adult smokers, smokers received accurate information about the relative risks of vaping and smoking, and policies were designed with the potential effects on smokers in mind. That is not happening.”