Episode 5: Vaping, smoking, and popcorn lung

Seemingly-reliable sources give you diametrically-opposed views on vaping. Are e-cigarettes “95% less harmful” than cigarettes, or aren’t they? Are vapes gateway drugs that lead people to smoke, or are they a great way to give up smoking? Is it both? Neither?

In Episode 5 of The Studies Show, Tom and Stuart look into the research on the health effects of vaping and try to answer these questions - as well as explaining the origin of the fabled “popcorn lung”.

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Show Notes

* The WHO praises India for banning vapes

* Article on The Conversation arguing the “vaping is 95% less harmful than cigarettes” claim has been debunked

* Long UK Government/King’s College London report defending the “95% less harmful” claim (2022)

* Earlier (2018) Public Health England report with similar conclusions

* New Nicotine Alliance (unaffiliated anti-smoking charity) report with useful references on addictiveness, risk, etc.

* Popcorn lung: Science-Based Medicine piece illustrated with lungs full of popcorn; Johns Hopkins piece saying popcorn lung is a concern; American Lung Association piece agreeing; Cancer Research UK piece saying no cases ever linked to vaping

* Study retracted for erroneously comparing different age groups; study retracted for time-travelling heart-attacks

* UK cigarette smoking rate dropping in adults; dropping in children

* Tom’s article on this from 2017

* 2017 study showing vaping and cigarette smoking correlate in teenagers

* 2022 Cochrane review on vaping and smoking cessation

* Study of vaping in pregnant mice; press release; article in The Sun with scary headline

* Study on vaping vs. nicotine patches for smoking cessation in pregnant women

* People’s beliefs about vaping: increasing belief that it’s as dangerous as smoking in adults; in adults again; in children

Credits

The Studies Show is produced by Julian Mayers at Yada Yada Productions.

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