Youths with their Heads in the Vape Clouds
Is youth vaping the problem South Californian researchers claim?
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by Dave Cross
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Jessica said: “There is a lot of concern by the public health community that e-cigarettes may be recruiting a whole new group of people who never smoked cigarettes.” A lot of concern in her institution maybe, considering their dedication to promoting the sales of traditional NRT products like patches and gum. The concern isn’t shared within those in the medical community seeking to interpret data in a logical fashion.
“Parents should just be aware if their teens are hanging out with other who are using these products,” warned Barrington-Trimis. Why, one might ask, should mothers and fathers embrace a new fear for their offspring? Because, claims the blinkered academic, not only are children at risk of being roped into vaping by advertising and flavours but also by their friends.
The research paper claims to have linked “friends’ use of and positive attitudes toward e-cigarettes and cigarettes” to use “and participant perception of the harm of e-cigarettes was strongly positively associated both with e-cigarette and cigarette use.” The news that young people might do things that their friends do is both earth shattering and an excellent example of quality research.
“While a few of the teens might be using e-cigs instead of cigarettes, the data suggests e-cigarettes may be recruiting new tobacco product users who might not have used cigarettes,” alleged young Jess. “So that’s a very strong finding.”
All well and good – except that her data does not bear that out in the slightest. Far from a strong finding it’s no finding at all. From a sample size of 2,084 17/18 year old students, she discovered that under a quarter had ever tried vaping and of that only 81 individuals had experimented without prior cigarette use. This is a barely significant rate of 3% but she has dressed it up using GCSE-level maths to publish a fictitious 40% figure. The only way to describe her statistical analysis is laughable.
The remaining teen vapers had all previously used or were using cigarettes and were trying vape as an alternative to something that causes greater harm. Were it not for the financial incentives she and her employers receive then maybe she would have highlighted that aspect to her study?
The problem she has repeated from previous flawed studies is to conflate ‘having tried’ with ‘regular use’. As a parent, I have fed my children Brussel sprouts; having tried them they have not gone on to be habitual consumers of the dinnertime delicacy.
Maybe it’s her claim that “e-cigarettes may lead to the normalisation of smoking behaviours” that highlights the fraud at the heart of this research? Maybe it’s her previous study asserting that flavourings are leading children by the hand to tobacco companies? Either way, it is borderline criminal in its lack of honesty and intelligence.
Photo Credit:
www.flickr.com Vaping 2 by jckars
Dave Cross
Journalist at POTVDave is a freelance writer; with articles on music, motorbikes, football, pop-science, vaping and tobacco harm reduction in Sounds, Melody Maker, UBG, AWoL, Bike, When Saturday Comes, Vape News Magazine, and syndicated across the Johnston Press group. He was published in an anthology of “Greatest Football Writing”, but still believes this was a mistake. Dave contributes sketches to comedy shows and used to co-host a radio sketch show. He’s worked with numerous start-ups to develop content for their websites.
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