United States public health officials need to correct e‐cigarette health misinformation

Abstract

Health misinformation is harmful as it can cause confusion and sow mistrust regarding the adoption of public health recommendations and policies. We provide examples of e-cigarette misinformation promoted by the United States public health officials, which have persisted despite new data challenging the validity of the original assertions.

Estimating the Effects of Tobacco-21 on Youth Tobacco Use and Sales

“…Five studies find evidence that e-cigarette MLSA laws reduce youth e-cigarette use (Nguyen, 2020;Dave et al, 2019;and Abouk and Adams, 2017b;Pesko,3;DeSimone et al 2022). E-cigarette MLSA laws may also raise cigarette use according to five studies (Friedman, 2015;Pesko et al, 2016;Dave et al, 2019;Pesko and Currie, 2019;Pesko et al, 2023) or reduce it according to one study (Abouk and Adams, 2017b).…”

“…We use the 2019 as our final year in the analysis since the federal T21 law came into effect at the end of 2019. 9 By extending through the end of the school year, we avoid possible confounding from the outbreak of e-cigarette, or vaping, product use-associated lung injury (EVALI) mostly occurring mid-to late-2019(Pesko et al, 2023).…”