Research

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.

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 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.

While in the UK, the Royal College of Physicians and Public Health England wholeheartedly endorse vaping and actively refute many of the absurd claims made in opposition of e-cigs, the CDC’s prohibitionist, alarmist mindset continues unabated.

A new study has led to some predictable, tiresome claims that e-cigarettes are a gateway to smoking, but it commits a laughable error also found in two other recent gateway studies: focusing on students who’ve taken a single puff of an e-cigarette rather than anything approaching regular use.

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?

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.

A recent study found that about a quarter of teens who've vaped have tried dripping, and the media wants you to be very worried about that. The truth is, though, the risks of dripping have been blown hugely out of proportion.

Vaping is over 95% safer than smoking, but most people don't know it. If we give smokers accurate information, they're more likely to choose harm reduction. So why aren't more people telling the truth about vaping?

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 New England Journal of Medicine formaldehyde study made a lot of people scared about formaldehyde in e-cig vapor. The research was heavily criticized, but the authors brushed off issues as "speculation." They can't do that anymore. Now yet another peer-reviewed study has clearly demonstrated that the original study's method was massively flawed.

A new study compares vapers to smokers in terms of their exposure to toxic chemicals. Stanton Glantz claims the study shows that most vapers "might as well smoke," but is it true?

Two recent studies from the US and UK continue to track the problem of the public misunderstanding of the relative risks of vaping and smoking. Science says vaping is much safer than smoking, but people - especially in the US - don't know it. So what's the problem?

One of the most contentious issues surrounding vaping is whether it really helps smokers quit. People opposed to vaping often argue that there just isn't enough evidence to say one way or another, or might even claim that it actually reduces quitting rates. They're wrong, and here's why.

A new study from the UK looks at the effectiveness of different methods for quitting smoking using real-world data. The results show that vaping is the most effective approach, helping more smokers quit than Chantix, NRT and all other approaches.

A new study has revealed that perceptions of the risks of vaping vs. those of smoking influence the chance of successfully switching. Dual users who thought vaping was dangerous were less likely to quit.

A new study from UCL researchers takes a look at the facts behind the youth vaping "epidemic" declared in 2018. Looking at the data from the National Youth Tobacco Survey (NYTS) calls many anti-vaping claims into question.