Fresh data shows teen vaping rates plunge in the USA whilst the anti-vape lobby continues to spread dangerous anti e-cigarette misinformation.
Youth vaping has dropped by over a THIRD according to the US Government’s own figures, with stats from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC] showing a drop of almost 2 million.
However, and despite this dramatic fall in young vapers, the Food and Drug Administration [FDA] continues to wage a war on vaping.
So much so, it is now pumping millions of dollars into anti-vaping classroom based lessons…pity it didn’t do the same with lit tobacco…
I say that given the CDC’s own figures tell us if the current smoking rates among youngsters continues, it will mean:
5.6 million of today’s Americans younger than 18 years of age are expected to die prematurely from a smoking-related illness.
This represents about one in every 13 Americans aged 17 years or younger who are alive today.
Whilst no-one with any sense can condone young children and teenagers vaping or smoking, common sense tells us that kids rebel, and I’d rather see them experiment with e-cigarettes that are proven to be 95% safer than smoking.
As the CDC says – 5.6million American kids could die over the next few years from lit tobacco related diseases…sobering statistics indeed.
Teen Vaping Rates Plunge – But FDA Continues Its Anti-Vaping Propaganda
Despite knowing the true facts – the FDA is still pushing the fake news anti-vape programme that proclaims – among many other dangerous misconceptions – that there are Lung Injuries Associated with Use of Vaping Products.
In fact, and as you can see from the link, the FDA is STILL lumping nicotine based e-cigarettes in with black market bought illegal and un-regulated cannabis/THC cartridges that lead to the EVALI deaths and illness. Indeed I wrote about this back in January this year: Federal Failure Over EVALI Costing More Lives Says Damming New Report.
You need to read a long way into the FDA ‘lung injury‘ report to see any mention of THC cartridges – talk about spinning the facts…
Teen Vaping Rates Plunge – Kids Being Brainwashed?
But of more concern is the absolutely mindbogglingly biased ‘e-cigarette prevention lesson plans‘ to be ‘taught’ in middle and high schools.
The FDA is extremely proud of this campaign and positively trumpets it:
The content is tailored both for classroom and remote learning.
Teachers and other adults may use these Scholastic resources to educate youth about the dangers of e-cigarettes.
Adults may also want to offer free quit resources to a child who they believe may be struggling with addiction.
All sounds innocent enough…until that is you look at some of the ‘facts‘ surrounding these anti-vape lessons including:
…many teens and young adults, got sick after using vaping products, including e-cigarettes.
Patients reported symptoms like difficulty breathing and chest pain.
Some people ended up with permanent lung damage, and multiple people died.
As the CDC and FDA continue to investigate the cause or causes of the outbreak, one finding is clear:
Using any type of vaping product can seriously harm your health
Please refer to my article on illegal THC cartridges causing EVALI and NOT just ‘any type of vaping product‘.
If you think that’s bad…here’s our old friend ‘popcorn lung’ rearing its ugly head again:
Some buttery-flavored vapes like caramel contain diacetyl and acetoin.
Inhaling diacetyl has been linked to popcorn lung, a lung disease that doesn’t have a cure.
Scary stuff – however the link between popcorn lung and vaping has been proven to be fake so many times now it’s getting ridiculous.
For more info read our article: Diacetyl & Popcorn Lung: A Real Concern Or Just More Propaganda? – and my post: 11 Anti Vaping Arguments | How To Win With The Facts.
In the latter Professor Michael Siegel says:
…daily exposure to diacetyl from smoking is 750 times higher, on average than exposure to diacetyl from vaping.
And you never hear of smokers dying from popcorn lung!
And BTW, you’ll struggle to find any e-liquids containing diacetyl – most if not all manufacturers removed it without being ordered to…
Not satisfied with scaring the absolute shit out of children, the FDA introduces yet another bit of misinformation – this time it’s vaping and heavy metal and nope I don’t mean rock bands:
Vape aerosol could be delivering metal particles like chromium, nickel, lead, tin and aluminum right into your lungs.
Some of these metals are toxic.
*head bangs head on desk*
Yeah I know, it’s not a laughing matter, but for goodness sake this is yet another bit of fake science lapped up by the mainstream media and used by the FDA.
The truth?
Back in February 2018 I wrote the article: Can Vaping Give You Brain Damage Due To Heavy Metals? Scientists Respond.
The simple answer was no – mainly because the very baseline of the ‘science‘ was so skewed it was ridiculous.
In a nutshell scientists used data that would be impossible to replicate in a human as Dr Konstantinos Farsalino pointed out:
The authors once again confuse themselves and everyone else by using environmental safety limits related to exposure with every single breath – and apply them to vaping.
However humans take more than 17,000 breaths per day but only 400-600 puffs from an e-cigarette.
Trust me, 99.9999% of the time there’s a vaping scare story in the media – within hours scientists in the know take it apart, and sometimes quite brutally.
Final Thoughts
Yes this study was released back in September and I briefly covered it in the Vape News under the headline: Dramatic Drop In Teen Vapers.
And yes its kind of good news to see teen vaping rates plunge in America…but is it?
The FDA updated its page just last week: Get the Latest Facts on Teen E-Cigarette Use – which spurred me on to take a deeper look.
Imagine my shock to see the FDA promoting fake science and scary misinformation to the wide eyed kids- much of it rebutted many times and completely outdated…but it doesn’t stop there.
The problem here is the media laps this sort of sh*t up and those headlines are picked up by adult vapers or smokers.
And that is a double edged sword.
The vapers might be worried and quit vaping and return to smoking – if it’s just as bad for your health then why the hell not you can hear them say…
And just as worrying, smokers considering quitting and turning to e-cigarettes will be faced with the same dilemma – both disastrous for public health.
Disposable E-Cigs and Flavoured E-liquids Attacked
Disposable e-cigs – now banned in the USA – are also a cause of concern for the FDA and rightly so.
They should NEVER have been banned in first place – you only have to look at the effects of black market cannabis cartridges to see how deadly that ends.
The FDA say despite the ban, American kids are still using these throwaway vape pens and that proves my point – if they’re banned then where the hell are they getting them – and what the heck is in them?
And I dunno, why not police the sale of vape gear to under-aged kids better..?
Prohibition once again opens up a lucrative black market with all the unregulated dangers that will and is bringing.
And of course…they can’t keep away from flavoured e-liquids can they? By them I mean the anti-vape brigade championed or should that be the politically scared into submission FDA.
On flavoured vape products, the FDA says:
Additionally, NYTS continues to show youth’s preference for flavored e-cigarettes.
About 8 in 10 of youth e-cigarette users are consuming products with flavors like fruit, mint, candy and menthol.
Among high school students who used flavored e-cigarettes, the most common flavors were fruit (73 percent), mint (56 percent), menthol (37 percent), and candy (36 percent).
Among middle school students who used flavored e-cigarettes, the most common flavors were fruit (76 percent), candy (47 percent), mint (46 percent), and menthol (24 percent).
Alarming figures indeed no matter what side of the vaping camp you pitch your tent.
However adults use flavoured vape juice too – kids drink and smoke but we don’t see a carte blanche ban of those now do we..?
Teen Vaping Rates Plunge – Follow the Money
Smoking related deaths and illnesses apart from the emotional costs involved, also has a heavy financial price to pay.
The FDA’s own figures shows smoking related illness costs:
- $170 billion in direct medical care for adults
- $156 billion in lost productivity due to premature death and exposure to secondhand smoke
Vaping costs the country barely anything – indeed so small is the figure I doubt it could be even read whatever data used.
And despite the fake news that vaping kills – we KNOW it doesn’t…so does science, and sadly so do governments around the world…
As always, it’s the money that counts and the real reason anti-e-cigarette campaigns – such as the FDA backed The Real Cost of Vaping, are so high profile and pushed by local, state and national government and lapped up by the mainstream media.
The FDA says:
In fiscal year 2020, states will collect $27.2 billion from tobacco taxes and settlements in court, but will only spend $740 million in the same year.
That’s only 2.7% of it spent on programs that can stop young people from becoming smokers and help current smokers quit.
One wonders where the other 97.3% of that $27.2 billion goes to…answers in the comments below…
Lit tobacco is a cash cow it’s as simple as that and vaping has quite literally muddied the playing field in a BIG way.
It’s the cosy little kill and cure playbook between Big Tobacco and Big Pharma that’s under threat here.
Big Tobacco causes the diseases and Big Pharma steps in with the cure…lucrative indeed…
Scare the current and new generation into wrongly believing vaping is bad – and you remove the safer competition.
Call me an old cynic if you want – but if or when Biden and Harris enter the White House the anti-vape fervour will go into overdrive and probably within the first 100 days.
That anti-vaping dastardly duo won’t be creating a Camelot – they’ll be promoting Camels…with all the pain and misery that will bring.
