On May 6, 2020, the American Journal of Public Health (AJPH) published an article by Brian Erkkila, Patricia Kovacevic, and Derek Yach titled, “Restricting Flavors in ENDS Could Have Repercussions Beyond Youths’ Use.” The authors review recent US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulatory guidance on electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS), including plans to restrict […]

The 2019 EVALI ‘Misinfodemic’ Part One (of three):  Searching for ‘patient zero’ The Foundation for a Smoke-Free World recently commissioned an independent analysis of media coverage before, during, and after the 2019 US EVALI (e-cigarette, or vaping, product use-associated lung injury) outbreak. Our analysis covered over 18,000 news stories published by top-tier media outlets in […]

A recent working paper published by the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) explores how perceptions of e-cigarette risk changed during the e-cigarette, or vaping, product-use associated lung injury (EVALI) outbreak in the United States. This post explores available data regarding this topic. (To learn more about general conclusions from this data, please see Ayda […]

An increasing number of economic studies show that how smokers perceive e-cigarette harm can influence their behavior when they consider quitting or switching from combustible cigarettes to e-cigarettes. Risk perception can also foreshadow young smokers’ behavior when choosing between combustible cigarettes or e-cigarettes, neither, or both. The link between risk perception and smoking behavior is […]

The authors of a recent editorial published by a prestigious medical journal write, “most patients with EVALI had inhaled vapor from e-cigarette liquids containing THC.” [emphasis added] In this piece, I will explain why I used to consider the term ‘THC e-cigarettes’ a logical fallacy, and how I have come to believe this original conclusion […]