Drs. Dharma Bhatta and Stanton Glantz published a study in February’s American Journal of Preventive Medicine claiming that “Use of e-cigarettes is an independent risk factor for respiratory disease in addition to combustible tobacco smoking.” (here)
In a University of California San Francisco press release, Professor Glantz made additional claims: “We concluded that e-cigarettes are harmful on their own, and the effects are independent of smoking conventional tobacco…This study contributes to the growing case that e-cigarettes have long-term adverse effects on health and are making the tobacco epidemic worse.”
Now Cornell University researchers, led by economics professor Don Kenkel, have published a comprehensive re-analysis of that study (here), concluding:
“We find no evidence that current or former e-cigarette use is associated with respiratory disease.”
Kenkel and his co-authors explain why the Bhatta and Glantz claims are bogus: “The statistical associations that Bhatta and Glantz find between e-cigarette use and respiratory disease are driven by e-cigarette users who are also current or former smokers of combustible tobacco…almost all e-cigarette users were either current or former smokers of combustible tobacco. In the longitudinal analysis sample with 17,601 observations, there were only 12 current e-cigarette users who had never smoked combustible tobacco. None of the 12 respondents had incident (new) respiratory disease.”
Brad Rodu – Tobacco Truth – July 14, 2020.