Once again, the media, so concerned about “fake news” continue to peddle nonsense to the public. If it’s not Obamacare coverage figures, it’s e-cigarettes. The government is no better and a story appearing on CNN today is a complete joke because it’s sloppily written and poorly researched.

For starters, CNN sent out this tweet:

https://twitter.com/HankBuldawg/status/806880864583950336

It links to this story where the report the Surgeon General, Dr. Vivek H. Murthy, saying:

“These products are now the most commonly used form of tobacco among youth in the United States, surpassing conventional tobacco products, including cigarettes, cigars, chewing tobacco and hookahs.”

First of all, e-cigarettes are not a “tobacco product.” There is not a scintilla of tobacco in e-cigarettes. They share one common trait: nicotine. Anti-smoking activists and public health officials for years have tried to conflate vaping with smoking cigarettes under the false guise that vaping is a “gateway” to actual cigarettes, particularly for teenagers. In fact, the opposite is true. In this piece from Reason, they charted, from data provided by the CDC, showing the decline in tobacco use by teenagers while there shows an increase in e-cigarette usage. Even with the increase in use by teens, a BMJ study showed that while a lot of teens try vaping, very few become regular users of the product.

So what of the “harm” of e-cigarettes? There isn’t much data to support the theory it’s harmful to people beyond the nicotine. That said, any fool can tell you inhaling vapor into your lungs is far less dangerous than inhaling smoke into your lungs. But look at the language the CNN article employs.

Echoing findings in the report, Dreyer noted that the other ingredients in the vaping liquids may be causing harm as they get heated and aerosolized and enter the lungs. Researchers suspect these chemicals are dangerous even if they have not yet proven it or figured out at what dose.

Erika Sward, assistant vice president of National Advocacy at the American Lung Association, also expressed concern.
“Some of those chemicals are carcinogenic,” she said, explaining that ingredients in vaping liquids have been linked to cancer when used in other ways. “We don’t know, walking down the line, what disease outcomes may occur. The other thing we’ve known for a while is that ingestion of nicotine, either through topical or by drinking, nicotine can cause acute poisoning and death.”

May be causing. Suspect. Some. Not yet proven. We don’t know. May occur.

The bottom line is, they don’t know. But they’re attempting to cause a public panic over vaping, something everybody knows, including doctors and scientists, is much less harmful to people than smoking cigarettes.

Calling e-cigarettes a “form of tobacco” is like calling cucumber a “form of meat.” It makes zero sense, and the media should know better.