Teen Vaping ‘Epidemic’ is Mostly Propaganda
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Vaping may not be perfect, but it’s objectively better for you than traditional cigarettes. It’s time to slice through the media propaganda once again with a weekly dose of truth. Despite increased frequencies of fear-mongering headlines touting the risks and rising numbers of vaping among America’s youth, statistics (a.k.a. a little thing called science) are stating otherwise.

 

So, when that editorial pops up in your Feed or Timeline describing the “teen vaping epidemic” and how school and public health officials are growing increasingly concerned, keep the following facts in mind:

 

1. Smoking among high schoolers has dropped

 

Yes. The frenzy being stirred up by the media about the dangers of vaping and its potential as a gateway to traditional smoking is nothing more than a smokescreen. The fact is that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has been studying the numbers of teen smokers. From 2011 to 2016 those numbers fell from 22 percent to 14 percent for traditional cigarettes. E-cig use has also fallen from 16 percent to 11 percent from 2015 to 2016.

 

2. Vaping isn’t perfect, but it’s better

 

You’d think governmental agencies and Washington lobbyists were truly concerned with protecting public health, the way they’ve rallied against the vaping industry. Conceding the fact that cigarettes are dangerous but reminding us that vaping isn’t harmless. Well, of course not. Very few things are completely harmless. However, vaping isn’t claiming to be so. Vaping is meant to urge traditional smokers to adopt a harm-reducing alternative. One that numerous global health organizations have already endorsed as objectively less harmful than cigarettes, by the way.

 

3. The FDA seems to be taking sides

 

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has openly forbidden e-cigarette manufacturers and firms from advertising health advantages of e-cigs over cigarettes, suppressing information that could assist consumers in making informed choices. At the same time, the FDA has committed to a policy proposal that would cut nicotine levels in traditional cigarettes to non-addictive levels. At face value, this may seem like an organization concerned with overall public wellbeing. But dig a little deeper and it looks like they’re pulling out all the stops they can to keep Big Tobacco afloat in an inevitably sinking ship.