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Misinformation About The Levels of Harm in Vapes as Compared to Cigarettes

A new Rutgers study revealed that most adult smokers, hence the portion of the population who would benefit most from using nicotine-based vapes, perceive the products as containing the same amount of harmful chemicals as regular cigarettes, or more.

Diane Caruana

May 31, 2023

Most adult smokers and and young adult non-smokers do not think that vapes are any safer than cigarettes.

Published in Addiction, the study “Perceptions about Levels of Harmful Chemicals in E-cigarettes Relative to Cigarettes, and Associations with Relative E-cigarette Harm Perceptions, E-cigarette Use and Interest,” measured the perceived levels of harmful chemicals in vaping products as compared to those in traditional cigarettes. The participants consisted of 1018 adult smokers and 1051 young adults aged between 18 and 29 who are nonsmokers.

The compiled data indicated that only about 20% percent of all participants believed that vapes contain less harmful chemicals than cigarettes and are therefore a safer alternative, while 30% percent said that they did not know. The research team concluded that most adult smokers and and young adult non-smokers do not think that vapes are any safer than cigarettes.

This study is a clear example of how the ongoing anti-vape propaganda has been feeding the existing misinformation and keeping smokers in the dark of the products which could help them quit for good. In fact last December, in response to a US initiative launched with the aim of reducing health misinformation, tobacco harm reduction experts had highlighted that this should be an opportunity to also mention the inaccuracies spread about vaping.

“…it’s unfortunate that United States public health officials appear to believe raising anti-tobacco sentiment is their first priority rather than promoting high quality evidence and/or providing appropriate contextualization to the many harms that exist in our world.”Dr. Michael Pesko, Health Economist and Associate Professor in the Department of Economics at Georgia State University

Vape misinformation is health misinformation

The initiative was launched by the Surgeon General of the United States (SG). “Health misinformation is a serious threat to public health. It can cause confusion, sow mistrust, harm people’s health, and undermine public health efforts. Limiting the spread of health misinformation is a moral and civic imperative,” he wrote in an advisory.

In response, a number of acclaimed public public health experts, led by Dr. Michael Pesko, a Health Economist and an Associate Professor at Georgia State University, wrote a paper in the journal Addiction which applauded the SG for addressing this important issue. However, added the paper, questions related to risks vs benefits of vaping products are another area where there is widespread misinformation that should be addressed. The authors went on to highlight examples of such inaccuracies:

Vaping can cause EVALI
Vaping may act as a “gateway” to smoking

Vaping Post contacted Dr. Pesko asking whether the SG or any other health authorities had responded to their paper. Sadly, but not surprisingly, he replied that no one responded, and that there have been no known efforts to reduce the existing misinformation on safer nicotine alternatives.

“I personally think it’s unfortunate that United States public health officials appear to believe raising anti-tobacco sentiment is their first priority rather than promoting high quality evidence and/or providing appropriate contextualization to the many harms that exist in our world. The average person can see through this and many lose faith in public health officials as a result. It’s not a good long-term strategy for improving public health overall,” added Dr. Pesko.