One of the most quizzical genres of tobacco control is the one where school teachers wander in dazed from the frontline to deliver urgent dispatches about the state of youth vaping. Vaping, they tell us, is out of control. You can’t enter a school bathroom without being engulfed by thick clouds of bubblegum blown out from vapes that are disguised as pens, highlights, or USB drives.
These impassioned pleas always say that vaping is an epidemic. And they are delivered by ostensible authoritative insiders. A big reason why these opinions have any purchase is that the proponents have a unique vantage point on these issues.
But what should we do when these qualitative voices' claims do not align with quantitative data? In other words, how are they getting things so remarkably wrong?
These situations are so absurd that they almost feel unbelievable. For the doubters, here is a recent example from South Carolina’s Island Packet: Why youth vaping is an epidemic in South Carolina schools and how to combat it.
A procession of lies
The article in question comes from a history teacher with 30 years of experience. I don’t wish to be disrespectful to an obviously commendable social servant, but there are too many factual errors to ignore here. Here are five huge errors from the article.
#1. Epidemic
“...the vaping epidemic that’s sweeping through South Carolina and our nation.”
Any reasonable person who reads this sentence would conclude that vaping is sharply rising among American youths.
This statement is totally contradicted by years of CDC data.
There is no epidemic. US teens have been vaping (and smoking) far less over the last few years.
#2. Covert devices
“Manufacturers are designing these devices to look like everyday objects — highlighters, USB drives, pens — making it easier for students to hide them from teachers, parents and law enforcement.”
While these devices have been given a lot of attention, how common are they? Does anyone know the name of the manufacturers who make this stuff? Or where they are sold. Because I think you’d struggle to find a responsible or reputable company making or distributing these devices.
Rogue manufacturers will always be around, but these devices have little to do with the legitimate market.
#3. Nicotine content
“...a single legal disposable vaping device can pack the nicotine of 20-40 cigarettes, and an illegal vape can be the equivalent of hundreds of cigarettes.”
A couple of things:
Firstly, disposable e-cigarettes aren’t designed to be consumed in a single sitting. So, the hand wringing about consuming a 2ml disposable isn’t a serious argument.
Secondly, what are meant to do about illegal vapes? Make them illegal? Oh, yeah, they are already. Now what?
#4. Vaping deaths
“Neighboring states have reported tragic vape-related incidents involving children, including hospitalizations from fentanyl-laced vapes, cases of permanent lung damage, and even deaths.”
Another fascinating anti-vaping sub-genre is the concerted effort to find just one nicotine vaping death. There is a supply and demand problem here that obscures a very dark fact: Anti-vaping campaigners would love it if a teen died from vaping. I’m not exaggerating for effect. These people are that ghoulish.
Anyway, this article links to another alleged vaping death. Of course, like the other fictitious reports, there are no surnames or medical reports. In other words, there is no way to verify these statements. Instead, the mother's anguished words are treated as if they were equivalent to an autopsy.
I’m sympathetic to her loss, of course, but the fact that she said he died from “popcorn lungs”, a condition that is only associated with vaping in the fertile mind’s of public health conspiracy theorists, tells us all we need to know.
#5. Youth use at 47%
Later in the article, the author claims China’s “nefarious practices” have led to 47% of South Carolina “self-report using these products.”
To be clear, this data refers to ever use. So, if someone takes a puff of a friend's disposable one time, that will fall into the category.
Another thing worth noting is that these data are more than five years old and do not represent the current state of play in the US.
Final thoughts
The author is stuck in 2019, when raging against youth vaping had a little more credibility because it was rising. Now that it’s been in decline for several years, these anxious warnings look foolish and frankly ignorant.
The fact is that US teen vaping is down 70% from its peak. Claiming there is an epidemic while promoting what amounts to lies and propaganda is a bad look for any credible educator.. I’m sure the author means well, but we all have to engage with reality and put the focus on real problems.
