Pediatrics "Gateway" Article Author Hiding Conflicts of Interest with Big Pharma; Drug Companies Have Gotten More than their Money's Worth

Last week, I discussed an article published in Pediatrics which is going to deal a devastating blow to the vaping industry because it wrongly concludes that e-cigarettes are a gateway to smoking among youth. Evidence like this is the death knell to vaping, as perhaps it should be if it were true.The problem, however, is that as I explained, the Pediatrics study cannot conclude that e-cigarettes are a gateway to smoking because it measured only e-cigarette experimentation at baseline and was unable to document that a single nonsmoking vaper actually became addicted to vaping. Nor was the study able to document that a single nonsmoking vaper actually used a product that contained nicotine. Since the Monitoring the Future study suggested that a solid majority of youth e-cigarette users do not use nicotine products, this is a major study limitation.In fact, the overwhelming evidence suggests that e-cigarettes are actually contributing towards the denormalization of smoking. The magnitude of the gateway "risk" identified in the Pediatrics paper is mathematically impossible given the recent data showing that while e-cigarette experimentation has skyrocketed among youth, smoking rates among those same youths has plummeted. Furthermore, there is now direct evidence - this time from qualitative interviews with youth - that e-cigarettes may actually be a roadblock to smoking.Today, I reveal that what makes the Pediatrics paper even more problematic than simply its unsupported conclusio...
Source: The Rest of the Story: Tobacco News Analysis and Commentary - Category: Addiction Source Type: blogs