Recently, no industry has been subjected to more attempts at regulation than vaping. Even through countless studies in support of vaping over cigarettes and dramatic drops in tobacco usage across the board, the vaping industry is still under attack constantly through proposed legislation, blatant lies, flavor bans, and most recently a study from the journal PLOS One, consisting of researchers at Georgia State University... though some of their leaps, methods, and laughable spelling errors would bring in the validity of their institute, let alone their findings.

Back in 2015, a study was created with the purpose of tracking how effective vaping was to not only curb cigarette but stop completely. Now I’m sure every one of you readers are thinking the same thing is when I came across this study, thinking that surely it will voice the same results that CDC, OTHER, and many more have repeatedly illustrated with extensive research. So I’m sure you’ll join Past-Chris in confusion that this study found that not only was vaping not effective but in fact the opposite, leading to participants to not only vape but continue smoking cigarettes in what I can only envision as a double-fisting choo-choo barreling down the tracks.

While I, for one, welcome studies of all kinds to be done, I do become hesitant when such wide claims are made over such a small minority of individuals and such questionable methods as to where it seems set up to fail.  This study began with 1,284 adults back in 2015 but only 858 completed the study over the course of a year. With nearly a third of their participants dropping out, the qualifications for a “success” was as follows; More than 30 days of not smoking after the completion of the year study.  

Now while that may seem like a pretty simple qualifier for pass or fail, the truth is that there are a number of variables that are not taken into account by the vast majority of sites spreading this study around as gospel as if it was the proof they’d needed to disprove the benefits of vaping over smoking. One of the biggest factors I personally witnessed as I dug through the pages of data is that the number of vapers/ENDS users, was disproportionate to those who did not and even those that were classified as users, a number of them classified their usage as “some days” and “rarely.” A large majority of the individuals in this study had never used a vaping device as a means of cessation, let alone were encouraged to try and use this a method of quitting. Instead they were evaluated, then allowed to go off without monthly or even tri-monthly check-ups, as some other studies of this nature have done, only needing to follow up a year later. However, even the study states that participants that tried vaping were 2.3 times more likely to give quitting cigarettes another chance over their non-vaping counterparts.

Looking at this study it seems that the option of using vaping devices was not considered by some participants, let alone presented as an option. As anyone knows, if you don’t want to quit, you’re not going to quit and from these results, there’s a large number of participants that didn’t even attempt to quit, with or without the use of any vaping options. Other studies that wanted to quantify the usefulness of vaping as an alternative did more for presenting that as an option, where this seems gamed to ensure the lowest percentage of turnover. On top of that, the claim that 9...yes N-I-N-E participants is all that quit smoking for vaping is a number so absurdly small it brings the entire study into question. To add to that doubt there is the claim that vaping had more of an influence to keep participants smoking than quitting which while possibly anecdotal, I have known literally no one that has chosen that path. I don’t want to play the conspiracy theorist and accuse collusion or fudging numbers but I do believe that there was severe mishandling of data and methods of data collection were irresponsible.

As an alternative look into the benefits of vaping, I’ve provided the link to the study and welcome all to read it because not only will you see the questionable reaches but also the numerous errors in spelling and logic. I’ve also decided to link the recent study from the Center for Disease Control which entirely contradicts the claims in this study as well as a link to the American Cancer Society’s endorsement of vaping American Cancer Society’s endorsement of vaping as a healthier alternative to vaping. As beneficial as these studies are, the most important factor in getting the truth about vaping out is you, the reader, the vaper, the people that have had had your lives changed from switching. Earlier this week we started on first official EightVape write in program for our community members to share their stories, with the topic this first month being “How has Vaping Changed your Life?” Just in these first few days, we’ve received an amazing number of stories where not only has vaping saved lives proverbially but literally. There are countless number of lives that have been saved by vaping and we may not know the true height of those numbers for years to come but just within the immediate surroundings of our community, there’s not a question of the benefits of vaping. If you haven’t yet submitted your story, we highly encourage you to, partly because we love hearing from our community but also because we’re giving away nearly $300 in store credit to the best stories. 

In the coming months and years, there’s going to be a lot more push back against vaping on a regulatory level and it's up to readers like you to ensure that you’re able to keep your freedoms. We all will have to do our part to make sure that these life saving methods are kept available to responsible adults and in this fight, every voice matters. From voting, to sharing, to speaking up, everything you do matters when it comes to ensuring that the millions of Americans who have switched to vaping can continue having access to their choice of means to achieve cessation.