The anti-tobacco journal Tobacco Control just published another e-cigarette study by Dr. John Pierce and co-workers from the University of California San Diego (here).
I’ve dissected Pierce’s previous work here, here and here.
This time, Pierce’s group used the FDA’s Population Assessment of Tobacco and Health Survey to determine what aids current and former smokers used to quit and how successful they were. As in his earlier work, Pierce counted anyone who took even one puff on a cigarette as a failed quitter.
First, let’s look at the main results, from Tables 3 and 4 of the study
Dr. Pierce provided generous click-bait quotes to the media, including the following:
“This is the first time we found e-cigarettes to be less popular than FDA-approved pharmaceutical aids, such as medications or the use of patches, gum, or lozenges.”
To render e-cigarettes as “less popular,” Dr. Pierce first gamed the numbers by combining smokers trying any prescription medicine and/or six different nicotine products, four of which are available over-the-counter.
Furthermore, who can blame American smokers for vapor’s declining popularity? They have been told incessantly, and incorrectly, that e-cigarettes are as or more dangerous than combustible cigarettes.
Dr. Brad Rodu – Tobacco Truth – 2022-02-10.
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