Many public health experts warned that banning vaping flavors would result in more adults smoking cigarettes.
In news that seems to fit with the 2020 memes: Cigarette sales have increased during the coronavirus pandemic.
People are spending less money than they would have on things like leisure activities and vacations. “They are also switching back to traditional cigarettes from vaping devices in the wake of federal restrictions on e-cigarette flavors,” The Wall Street Journal reports. Earlier this year, the federal government banned some pod and cartridge-based e-cigarettes flavors that were the most popular option for adults who switched from traditional cigarettes to vaping.
E-cigarettes have been demonstrated, beyond any reasonable doubt, to be safer than cigarettes. A host of studies have shown that vaping is more effective in helping smokers quit than nicotine patches or gum. Many public health experts warned that banning vaping flavors would result in more adults smoking cigarettes.
Unfortunately, these warnings went unheeded and their grim predictions appear to be materializing. Smokers who had switched to flavored e-cigarettes, particularly smokers in their 50s, are now switching back to their old habits.
E-cigarettes were already being targeted by lawmakers before COVID-19, with much of the public wrongly believing a series of lung-injuries related to vaping black market THC cartridges were actually being caused by legal e-cigarettes. The Centers for Disease Control Prevention (CDC) later found, and belatedly announced, that black market THC cartridges cut with vitamin E acetate were to blame.
Guy Bentley – Reason – August 24, 2020.
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