Young Adults Think E-Cigs Safer Than Tobacco Ones

[Gato del Jugo]

This time it's Yahoo Health..

Which, interesting enough, never allows readers to comment on any articles there...


"This study has two alarming findings," said lead author Robert McMillen, coordinator of the tobacco Control Unit at Mississippi State University, in a statement provided by the American Academy of Pediatrics. "First, the risks of e-cigarette use and exposure to vapor are unknown, yet many parents report using these electronic cigarettes to reduce harm to others. Second, half of current users are nonsmokers, suggesting that unlike tobacco harm-reduction products, e-cigarettes contribute to primary nicotine addiction and to renormalization of smoking behaviors."

http://health . yahoo . net/news/s/hsn/young-adults-think-e-cigs-safer-than-tobacco-ones

(Link broken)

 

[JerryRM]

Half of the current users are nonsmokers? The risks of e-cigarette use and exposure to vapor are unknown? What a pile of B.S.

 

[DrMA]

So, despite the ANTZ lies and propaganda, people intuitively know the truth that ecigs are much safer than burning tobacco, and they find this alarming. I'm sure the alarm is simply caused by the fact that the misinformation campaign is failing.

 

[TomCatt]

Half of the current users are nonsmokers? The risks of e-cigarette use and exposure to vapor are unknown? What a pile of B.S.

Agree with the BS . The story is confusing but I think they were saying that 1/2 of the "young adults" or maybe the "young parents"


Here's a larger excerpt of the story:

Researchers surveyed 3,253 adults in 2013. Of the 88 percent who completed the survey, 8 percent were aged 18 to 24, and 22 percent of those were parents.

Of the young parents, 13 percent said they'd tried e-cigarettes, 6 percent within the last month. About half of both groups had never smoked regular cigarettes or were former smokers. Just over 80 percent said they thought e-cigarettes might be better for them than regular cigarettes.

All of the young adults reported using e-cigarettes flavored with menthol or fruit flavors, according to the survey. Only 7 percent of the young adults were using e-cigarettes to help them quit smoking.

"This study has two alarming findings," said lead author Robert McMillen, coordinator of the Tobacco Control Unit at Mississippi State University, in a statement provided by the American Academy of Pediatrics. "First, the risks of e-cigarette use and exposure to vapor are unknown, yet many parents report using these electronic cigarettes to reduce harm to others. Second, half of current users are nonsmokers, suggesting that unlike tobacco harm-reduction products, e-cigarettes contribute to primary nicotine addiction and to renormalization of smoking behaviors."

 

[Spazmelda]

Here's a link of the same story that you can actually comment on:
http://www.medicaldaily.com/81-young-parents-say-e-
cigarettes-are-less-harmful-people-around-them-are-they-really-280168

 

[Roger_Lafayette]

3,253 surveyed, 88% replied = 2,863 replies.

88% between ages of 18-24 of this "random sample of adults?" No.

The original paper says *eight* percent were. That's better. So now we haev 8% of 2,863 = 229.

22% of the entire sample were parents, i.e. 22% of 2,863 = 498.

13% of parents reported trying vaping, i.e. 13% of 498 = 65

"45% of parents who had tried [vaping] had never smoked or were former smokers" = 45% of 65 = 30.

[What does "former smokers" mean? Vapers who had switched??]

So-o let me get this straight. These conclusions are based on 30 people out of 3,000 in an on-lne survey?

Where have we seen this before? The Grana et al. junk science letter to Jama, in which the quit rates of 88 smokers out of 1000 who had reported merely having just one lousy vaping puff were compared to the rest.

What is it about public health that lets these people report such small handfuls of data? And then the media gets hold of it and sceams it in headlines, as if a tiny number of data points characterizes millions of people. We already know from the NHS data in the UK that virtually all regular vapers are smokers.

And CDC Dir. Tom Frieden has the nerve to comment that there's no good cessation evidence because "the plural of anecdote is not data." (see the LA times article analyzed in C.V.'s blog: CDC Director Frieden explains that he hates ecigs because he is clueless | Anti-THR Lies and related topics

The final conclusion from this on-line survey (yes, that's all it was): "half of current users are nonsmokers, suggesting that unlike tobacco harm-reduction products, e-cigarettes contribute to primary nicotine addiction and to renormalization of smoking behaviors."

They're getting that out of a sample of 65 people from an online survey, and they don't even know whether some of those folks are vapers who have quit??

The garbage that passes for science in the arena of public health is simply unbelievable. No wonder some people aren't vaccinating their kids. Or believe that space aliens built the pyramids. Good grief.

Here's the original abstract, which does not show the ending numbers after all the percentages are crunched:

Result Content View

 

[Talyon]

Whoa just wait a minute.....

Space Aliens didn't build the Pyramids?

Lol sorry just had to.

 

[LaraC]

"About half of both groups had never smoked regular cigarettes or were former smokers."

So... in each of those "half of both groups" it's conceivable there could be one person who had never smoked a cigarette in his/her life, and all the rest were former smokers who had switched to e-cigarettes and no longer used regular cigarettes.

One never-smoked-at-all person could be lumped in with former smokers who had switched from regular cigarettes to e-cigarettes. All lumped together.

And that led McMillen (the "lead author", no less!) to jump to this nonsensical conclusion:
"Second, half of current users are nonsmokers, suggesting that unlike tobacco harm-reduction products, e-cigarettes contribute to primary nicotine addiction and to renormalization of smoking behaviors."

Using the phrases "nonsmokers" and "primary (emphasis mine) nicotine addiction" and "renormalization of smoking behaviors" makes it sound as if a lot of people who had never smoked a cigarette in their lives had suddenly decided to take up e-cigarettes.

Robert McMillen should be ashamed of himself.

 

[tommy2bad]

As I commented 81% of respondents are smarter than the reporters. I mean ecigs are safer than smoking so it's the other 19% who don't know this that I would be concerned about, did they take up vaping because it was more dangerious than smoking? Or because they didn't care either way?
Half of vapers were now ex smokers and some fool thought this was a problem! In any other NRT result 50% sucess would be proclaimed as the holy grail of NRT.

 

[ruet]

Can we PLEASE stop it with the link breaking? If you want to post the story, post the story. If you don't, don't.

 

[TomCatt]

http://www.e-cigarette-forum.com/fo...g-links-junk-science-other-rubbish-posts.html

 

[Spazmelda]

Trust me, I'd much prefer if links weren't broken. It is a real pain to reassemble them on an iPad. However, I understand the request to break them and I agree with the reasoning.

 

[Berylanna]

OK, now this all makes sense.

The reason e-cigs don't help smokers to quit is because 50% of ecig users are former smokers, so that means....smokers who use ecigs all die within 24 hours and then come back as undead ecig users?

 

[Roger_Lafayette]

Trust me, I'd much prefer if links weren't broken. It is a real pain to reassemble them on an iPad. However, I understand the request to break them and I agree with the reasoning.

I wish that sticky could be re-written to use Elaine Keller's method as the example. Instead of putting in a space, you break the line. Like this:

http://www.whatever
.com/blah.html

Then the entire thing can be pasted into a browser's address bar. It's a little more work than having a link which is immediately clickable. But less work than having to deal w/ one that has an embedded space.

 

[TomCatt]

OK, now this all makes sense.

The reason e-cigs don't help smokers to quit is because 50% of ecig users are former smokers, so that means....smokers who use ecigs all die within 24 hours and then come back as undead ecig users?

Zombie Vapers