Cali Safety Lies
A University of California San Diego physician is spreading more lies about the relative safety of electronic cigarettes
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by Dave Cross
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Over the last couple of years, researchers have noted that there has been an issue with smokers becoming more reticent to switch and vapers returning to smoking cigarettes. Public Health England, the Royal College of Physicians, and ASH have all pointed to the misinformation spread by overseas sources.
“A convincing body of evidence exists that confirms e-cigarettes cause lung inflammation and injury, as well as negative health effects in multiple organs,” Crotty claims.
“I initially believed, in my heart of hearts, that nothing could compare to the dangers of smoking conventional tobacco. Over eight years of research, and as affirmed by this new review of the evidence, it has become clear to me that e-cigarettes cause their own set of diseases that seem to impact just about every organ in the body—from the brain to the bladder.”
She states e-liquid contains nicotine or THC (it doesn’t), and chemicals dissolved in an oily liquid base (there is no oil).
She says vapour contains:
- Vitamin E acetate
- Diacetyl
- Formaldehyde
- Acrolein
Vitamin E acetate was only found in a batch of illegal cannabis products, diacetyl is banned in the UK and voluntarily removed from most US products, while formaldehyde and acrolein are by-products from dry hits. In failing to be truthful about the research, Crotty also fails to note the difference in the amount of compounds found when compared to cigarette smoke as this would destroy her opposition to reduced harm.
The reliance on the misnamed EVALI outbreak is a nonsense. Recently, Australians were told that this is what caused the death of a 71-year-old. As Professor Colin Mendelsohn pointed out: “The man died from advanced lung damage caused by 40 years of heavy smoking…[he] smoked a pack-a-day for four decades and had wisely switched to vaping 10 years ago. In October 2021 he developed increasing shortness of breath. He was treated with antibiotics but he continued to deteriorate and died several weeks later.”
Harm reduction Clive Bates tore Dr Crotty’s research paper to pieces, saying it was “based on a false premise”. Bates demanded the paper was extensively revised or withdrawn by the publishing journal.
“The EVALI (E-cigarette, or Vaping, product use-Associated Lung Injury) outbreak of severe lung injuries in 2019 in the United States was not caused by nicotine e-cigarettes or any nicotine-based vaping product. It was caused by cannabis (THC) vapes adulterated with Vitamin E Acetate and possibly other thickeners added as cutting agents by unscrupulous illicit vendors. Such thickeners cannot be added to nicotine e-liquids and would serve no useful purpose if they could,” he wrote.
References:
- Clive Bates’ published response - https://pubpeer.com/publications/9923E797CFB077C42A7BA98400CA1A#1
Photo Credit:
Photo by Scott Rodgerson on Unsplash
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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