Dr. Michael Siegel is a professor in the Department of Community Health Services, Boston University School of Public Health. Dr. Siegel has 25 years of experience in the field of tobacco control including two years working for the CDC. Dr. Siegel has a blog called The Rest of the Story: Tobacco News Analysis and Commentary. The articles posted in Dr. Siegel's blog attempt to present his readers with factual information about both traditional tobacco products and e-cigarettes.
Today's headline caught my attention:
"CDC and Glantz Misinformation Campaigns on Electronic Cigarettes are Working: Media Disseminating False Conclusions to Public"
As vapors, the majority of us are aware of the misinformation and falsehoods being spread by the media. We are also very aware of pending FDA regulations that are in the pipe. Many of us fear that such regulations may either put an end to e-cigarettes and vaping completely, in a legal sense, or will severely limit our choices as to which products and liquids we can purchase. Even worse are the fears of the hardworking people who have invested their time, energy and savings into developing products, opening shops, and creating businesses which are now their only source of income. Many of these businesses employ others who depend on their success as well. The results of these misinformation campaigns can be devastating to them on an economic level.
Dr. Siegel writes, "In recent weeks, I have exposed a repeated series of false or misleading statements being made by health and anti-smoking agencies, organizations, and advocates who are opposed to electronic cigarettes. The two most problematic aspects of this misinformation campaign are:
1. The CDC's propaganda regarding electronic cigarettes being a gateway to a lifetime of smoking addiction, despite the absence of any evidence to support this contention; and
2. Stan Glantz's propaganda that electronic cigarettes are a pathway to smoking addiction among youth, despite the fact that his study was a cross-sectional one and could not determine whether even a single youth started using electronic cigarettes and then progressed to established smoking."
Back in the day journalists used to fact check their work and do a little bit of investigative reporting. It seems that these days they rely of press releases and Google searches and parrot whatever is being distributed and report it without taking any time to fact check the information. Think about how many stories you have read lately that mention the 2009 FDA study that found that e-cigarettes contain an ingredient found in anti-freeze. Not a single reporter that I know of seems to have bothered to read the study and find out that this ingredient was only found in one of 18 liquids samples and further studies were not conducted to see if this was a fluke or not.
Dr. Siegel explains that he pointed out that the CDC's report that electronic cigarettes are a gateway to a lifetime of smoking addiction is misleading and has no evidence to support it to a CDC official who he communicates with. The CDC official with whom he pointed this out to responded by basically saying it doesn't matter.
"A CDC official with whom I have been corresponding did not deny that the statement made by CDC regarding electronic cigarettes being a gateway to smoking addiction was misleading; however, he did downplay its significance, arguing that no one is paying attention to that statement."
Dr. Siegel then points out that the NY Times used this very same misleading information, that no one supposedly pays attention to, in an article titled Council Bill Aims to Limit Use of E-Cigarettes as Their Popularity Grows. NY Times reporter Anemona Hartocollis, writes, "The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has found that the percentage of middle- and high-school students who use electronic cigarettes more than doubled from 2011 to 2012. In a statement with that report, Dr. Thomas R. Frieden, the C.D.C. director, said teenagers who used e-cigarettes could become addicted to nicotine and go on to smoke regular cigarettes."
To the reporter's credit, Hartocollis also included the president of NJoy's response to the CDC report, “There is no scientific data to support the argument that e-cigarettes are a gateway to smoking. On the contrary, there is a significant amount of research that indicates e-cigarettes can be a novel approach for moving smokers away from tobacco cigarettes.”
As Dr. Seigel points out, it is the CDC's word against NJoys. So, when other reporters and bloggers decide to write about electronic cigarettes, guess whose viewpoint they are most likely to report? And how many of them will quote the one little paragraph in The NY Times?
Seigel then turns his attention on an article titled Study: Teens' E-Cigarette Use Promotes Heavy Tobacco Use that was published by Voice Over America last week. This article begins, "WASHINGTON — According to the first-ever study on the use of electronic cigarettes, or e-cigarettes, by young people, researchers have found that the devices, marketed as an alternative to real cigarettes, appear to fuel heavy smoking among youth."
The study being referred to here was conducted by Stan Glantz, director of the Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education at the University of California, San Francisco. He is also the senior author of the study. Jessica Berman reports, "Glantz said that while there is evidence electronic cigarettes help a small percentage of adult smokers stop, the same is not true for adolescents, who he says are being bombarded with appealing ads. 'They are being marketed with flavors, with images of sex and independence, and also marketed with the claim they will help you quit smoking and, in fact, the kids who are trying to quit smoking were more likely to be using e-cigarettes. But, as I said before, [they are] much less likely to actually quit,' said Glantz."
Think about how many similar articles you have seen published by local papers throughout the country. Dr. Seigel writes, "Think about how damaging this headline is. Clearly, it is disseminating the conclusion that electronic cigarette use leads to heavy smoking among teenagers. If true, this would negate the tremendous smoking cessation benefits of electronic cigarettes for current smokers. Therefore, this conclusion has immense policy implications."
Dr. Seigel goes on to explain why Glantz's conclusions are false and mis-leading and then defends the reporter, "To be clear, this is not the reporter's fault. She is simply repeating what Dr. Glantz concluded in the propaganda material that he sent out to the media. Remember that in a statement accompanying his new study, Glantz proclaimed that electronic cigarettes are 'a new route to smoking addiction for adolescents.' He also represented his data as showing that: 'kids who use e-cigs are less likely to have stopped smoking.' And he wrote that: 'Use of e-cigarettes is associated with heavier use of conventional cigarettes, which raises the likelihood that actual use of e-cigarettes may increase harm by creating a new pathway for youth to become addicted to nicotine and by reducing the odds that an adolescent will stop smoking conventional cigarettes.'
In other words, this news article is a precise reflection of the Glantz propaganda campaign. Sadly, that campaign, like that of the CDC on the same issue, is one of misinformation and deception."
In other words, this news article is a precise reflection of the Glantz propaganda campaign. Sadly, that campaign, like that of the CDC on the same issue, is one of misinformation and deception."
So much for nobody is paying attention to the misinformation being released to the public and the media. As we can see, the propaganda is being distributed by the government and others who you would think are being non-partial and factual, but aren't. When it is reported, "According to the CDC..." or "According to a study conducted by the Director of the Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education at the University of California, San Francisco," both reporters and the public are going to jump on that without question. When such reports are disputed by the likes of the President of NJoy, people are going to write him off as having a financial interest and motivation for lying. Right?
Vapers and e-cigarette users need to pay attention to the anti-electronic cigarette mis-information being reported and react to it by writing letters to the editors or commenting on the articles on-line. We have to do the reporter's jobs for them by responding with factual information. We can get this information from Dr. Seigel's blog. Let's stand together and do something about the propaganda before it does too much damage.
Vapers and e-cigarette users need to pay attention to the anti-electronic cigarette mis-information being reported and react to it by writing letters to the editors or commenting on the articles on-line. We have to do the reporter's jobs for them by responding with factual information. We can get this information from Dr. Seigel's blog. Let's stand together and do something about the propaganda before it does too much damage.
No comments:
Post a Comment