American Lung Association Disseminates Negligent Medical Advice About Vaping

The president of the American Lung Association yesterday disseminated negligent medical advice regarding vaping through a tweet that included advice from six physicians.Each of these six physicians provides negligent medical advice regarding smoking cessation using electronic cigarettes.1. Chicago: This advice is negligent because it misrepresents the benefit-risk profile of electronic cigarette use for the individual patient. The physician is telling all smokers that the risks of trying e-cigarettes outweighs the potential benefits. But this is not at all consistent with the science. The science unequivocally demonstrates that there are tremendous medical benefits to patients who are able to quit or cut down substantially using e-cigarettes. And there are essentially no harms because smokers who use e-cigarettes are precisely those who believe they are unable to quit using other methods. This is a complete distortion of the risk-benefit ratio for the individual patient, and it therefore constitutes negligent medical advice.2. Germany: This advice is negligent because the physician is telling patients that vaping is the same as smoking. This is categorically false. Vaping involves no tobacco whatsoever, and it involves no combustion. E-cigarette aerosol eliminates tens of thousands of the chemicals present in tobacco smoke, including more than 60 known human carcinogens. Switching from smoking to vaping results in dramatic and immediate improvement in respiratory symptoms and...
Source: The Rest of the Story: Tobacco News Analysis and Commentary - Category: Addiction Source Type: blogs