Why It's Becoming Harder And Harder To Blame Vaping As A Gateway To Smoking

Thomas Frieden's Bold Statements Not Holding Up

More than 3 years ago a claim was made by the director of the CDC, Thomas Frieden, that kids were vaping and then switching to regular tobacco cigarettes. This fear has created a lot of worry for the CDC and has been a driving force behind the CDC and the FDA's anti-vaping stance. The only problem with the claim is that no one has actually been able to come up with any sort of evidence that proves Thomas' statement as even remotely true.

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One glaring detail in all of this is that the CDC's reports only focus on teens who have only tried vaping. None of the reports show data for teens who use vaping products regularly. Without knowing how many of the teens are experimenting with vaping versus the number of teens who are regularly using e-cigs, it becomes easy to convolute the findings in order back up their claims. 

THE PROOF IS IN THE PUDDING

Two studies have been released since the claim was made by Frieden. In a survey published by Kenneth Warner, from the University of Michigan, the exact opposite of Frieden's claim was found. The survey contained data on students in the 8th, 10th and 12th grade. They found that, of the 12th graders who had never smoked traditional cigarettes, 94 percent of them had not used an e-cig in the previous month, 60 percent had only vaped on one or two days and less than 1 percent of kids who had never smoked had vaped for 20 or more days in the previous month. Another study conducted by Richard Miech at the University of Michigan also found significant results as well. The report published in the journal Tobacco Control, showed that almost two-thirds of teenagers who had vaped were using nicotine-free e-liquid. Both of these studies echo what the findings have been for the British surveys being conducted recently.

IT'S ALL ABOUT WORD PLAY

By the FDA and the CDC constituting vaping as "tobacco use" they're able to claim that there hasn't been a decline in overall youth tobacco use since 2011. Inaccurate terms like this allows them to imply that as vaping grows in popularity, it's only adding to the youth tobacco problem, rather than helping it. Although, with new studies continuing to emerge containing hard hitting facts and real evidence, it's going to be harder for the FDA and CDC to uphold such bold claims.

What are your thoughts on the CDC's claims? Drop us a line below to let your voice be heard!

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