A study has found that inaccurate nicotine harm perception costs lives. Are you listening media and so-called “experts”?
Frightening people away from alternatives to deadly combustible tobacco is causing more deaths. It is scary how many people believe that vaping is equally or more dangerous than tobacco.
This study examined the real world implications of people being scared away from safer alternatives!
You can read the full study here or I will summarise the main points below.
Study Methods
This study was conducted in America where a majority of adults who smoke wrongly believe that nicotine causes cancer.
Data was taken from the PATH study (Population Assessment of Tobacco & Health) which has been running since 2013.
One of the questions in the survey completed by participants was…
“Do you believe nicotine is the chemical that causes most of the cancer caused by smoking cigarettes?”
There were 4 possible responses ranging from “Definitely Not” to “Definitely Yes”.
The responses were compared to sustained cigarette cessation rates using safer (non-combustible) nicotine products.
This was used to assess the impact of the opinion of nicotine and cessation rates.
The public health impact of nicotine perceptions were estimated as…
“the difference in all-cause mortality between the base case and the four nicotine perception scenarios.”
Results
The results below display those swapping to non-combustible nicotine and quitting smoking compared with their answer to the question about whether nicotine causes cancer.
- Those who responded “Definitely not” came to 8.39%. This results in a net benefit of preventing nearly 800,000 premature deaths over an 85 year period. Wow!
- Those who responded “Definitely yes” came to 2.59%. This is a net harm of nearly 300,000 additional premature deaths over the same period.
Conclusion
I will simply quote this from the report as it sums up the situation perfectly!
“Accurate knowledge regarding the role of nicotine is associated with higher switch rates and prevention of premature deaths. Our findings suggest that promoting public education to correct perceptions of harm from nicotine has the potential to benefit public health.”
Related Social Media Posts
Nicotine does not cause cancer. Yet more that half of Americans who smoke believe it does.
– this misperception will cause 300,000 deaths
– correcting thismisperception could save 800,000 liveshttps://t.co/16CkwBzmeySo, who misinformed them? Tobacco Control itself.
— Charles A. Gardner, PhD (@ChaunceyGardner) August 11, 2024
The widely held misperception that nicotine causes cancer could be deadly. Please continue reading below.https://t.co/7fTg5hs8xP https://t.co/LmN82ewDpi pic.twitter.com/g7O5R183r3
— Phillip Kirschberg (@RushmoreExt23) August 15, 2024
“Accurate knowledge regarding the role of nicotine is associated with higher switch rates and prevention of premature deaths. Our findings suggest that promoting public education to correct nicotine misperceptions has potential to benefit public health.”https://t.co/0FzH4gyx78
— Di (@Di_THR_Cat) August 12, 2024
Nicotine does not cause cancer
Nicotine does not cause cancer
Nicotine does not cause cancer
Nicotine does not cause cancer
Nicotine does not cause cancer
Nicotine does not cause cancer
Nicotine does not cause cancer
Nicotine does not cause cancerhttps://t.co/3P5jkZ50Ps— Dr Colin Mendelsohn (@ColinMendelsohn) August 12, 2024
