Research

If you believe the stuff you hear about vaping in the media or from many of those in public health and tobacco control, you’d think that e-cigarettes were going to be a bad thing for the population. But a new analysis of UK data has revealed that e-cigarettes have led to an additional 16,000 to 22,000 smokers quitting in 2014 alone.

If there was one rule for conducting scientific studies on a topic, it would be to make sure you understand it first. But with e-cigarettes, that is not what happens. All too frequently, vaping researchers know almost nothing about vaping, and the result is invariably a study that ends up discouraging smokers from making the switch. Here are some of the worst offenders.

Yesterday, the Surgeon General released his first report on e-cigarettes, and it comes to completely different conclusions to the Royal College of Physicians' report from earlier this year. Why? Because he puts anti-vaping talking points ahead of the facts.

The issue of reliability in e-cigarette research is being brought into the limelight recently. So, in the manner of “A Rough Guide to Spotting Bad Science,” is there anything we should be on the lookout for when considering the findings of e-cigarette-related studies? Whether by incompetence or by design, there are many common problems with vaping related research - and how its often reported - that any critical reader of the science should keep an eye out for.

A new survey by ASH UK adds further evidence that electronic cigarettes are Not a gateway to cigarette smoking and they don't appeal to non-smokers.

A new study from CDC researchers has revealed that vaping is the most popular quitting smoking aid in the US. It might not sound exciting, but when you take a look at the numbers, the study strongly suggests that vaping is helping more smokers quit than FDA-approved treatments.

The CDC is reporting that the number of calls to poison control centers relating to e-cigarettes increased from one per month in September 2010 to 215 per month in February 2014.

Just when you thought the whole formaldehyde issue had been abused enough, utterly debunked by subsequent research and relegated to the slush-pile of over-stated risks of e-cigarettes, it turns out there’s more. The Center for Environmental Health has announced that they’ve found “high levels” of cancer-causing chemicals in the majority of almost 100 e-cigarettes tested.

The new Cochrane Review of the effectiveness of e-cigarettes for quitting confirms that the evidence to date supports the idea that even poorly performing cig-a-likes are effective for helping smokers either quit entirely or markedly reduce the amount they smoke.

Passive vapor may be no more harmful (and probably way better smelling) than smoke and vapor-free human breath and even outdoor air.

Inhalation Toxicology, a peer reviewed journal, published the results of an indoor air quality study conducted at the Center for Air Resources Engineering and Science by CHANGE, LLC at the Clarkson University, Potsdam, NY. The study was carried out to compare the level of harmful byproducts left behind by cigarette smoke versus vaporized e-cigarette liquid.

After the release of a new study looking at formaldehyde in e-cig vapor, the media has gone into a predictable frenzy of fearmongering. But what does the evidence really say?

A recent French study concludes that e-cigs are potentially carcinogenic. To find out what they actually determined from the test, it’s very, very important to look what they did to come to their conclusion. The answer would literally melt your face off.

For those intent on claiming that e-cigs are a gateway to conventional cigarettes, the new Monitoring the Future study has a pretty devastating result: it turns out, most teen vapers don’t even use nicotine.

The picture frequently painted for the public is that nicotine alone creates the addiction to smoking, and that nicotine in itself – whether consumed by smoking or vaping – is hugely addictive. But is this really true? Here's everything you need to know about e-cigarettes and nicotine addiction.

According to the findings of a new study, switching from smoking to vaping means reducing your exposure to toxic chemicals by a factor of about (probably over) 1,500. However, this study comes from tobacco company (and owner of Blu and SkyCig) Lorillard, so is it really reliable, or just a hollow PR stunt?

If you want a constant stream of junk science on a topic, one thing you’ll need is some researchers willing to crank out a shoddy paper in support of your cause, ideally without putting too much work into it. And the University of North Carolina's Rebecca Williams has mastered the art.

Nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) isn’t as benign as Big Pharma wants you to believe. They may have suckered politicians, doctors and scientists into supporting their trade in an addictive drug, but with my powers of cherry-picking, misrepresentation and lies of omission, I can reveal the truth: NRT is a serious threat to public health.