Flavours Attacked Again
New study gains traction in the media calling vape flavours something that may cause “life-threatening diseases”.
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by Dave Cross
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The team claim to uphold the highest standards, they speak about their scientific rigor and say, “we used rigorous and unbiased approach during experiments and data analysis.”
This stance is somewhat compromised as they cite the hugely discredited Jessica Barrington-Trimis study: “E-liquid constituents and their potential adverse effects have not been well-understood, and there is much scientific uncertainty about these products postulating an unrecognized respiratory health hazard to the users (Barrington-Trimis et al., 2014).”
The highest, unbiased standards the team used led co-author Thivanka Muthumalage to say: “Cinnamon, vanilla and butter flavouring were the most toxic but mixing flavours caused by far the most toxicity to white blood cells.”
The experiment tested vape products on a type of white blood cell formed in bone marrow, which spends its time fighting infections in the blood. The group then made up a press release linking vaping to “cancer, heart disease, diabetes and dementia.”
Risibly, the authors then stated: “The study adds to growing evidence about the harmful effects e-cigarettes have on users’ health.”
Lead author Irfan Rahman demonstrated how unbiased he is: "Our scientific findings show that e-liquid flavours can, and should, be regulated and that e-juice bottles must have a descriptive listing of all ingredients. We urge regulatory agencies to act to protect public health. Alluring flavour names, such as candy, cake, cinnamon roll and mystery mix, attract young vapers."
Rahman is probably one of the most unbiased researchers looking into vaping. He must be, because otherwise he couldn’t have written: “we used rigorous and unbiased approach during experiments and data analysis.”
He’s the unbiased researcher who previously said, “Our research affirms that e-cigarettes may pose significant health risks,” in 2015. Mice were exposed to ridiculous levels of dry burning in that study, and it was widely condemned as an example of exceptionally poor science.
This month’s press release has found a welcome home in a number of national and international newspapers. They’ve taken his declared lack of bias at face value and run with the scary news that vaping is dangerous and needs to be clamped down on. None of them care about his joke work in 2015 – or his claims that vaping causes mouth ulcers and that, “Electronic cigarettes can stop wounds from healing.” Oh, and then there was his work in 2016 to prove that vaping causes bad breath and gingivitis.
If there’s one thing that has become absolutely clear over the last three years, it’s that attaching Irfan Rahman’s name to a scientific vape study is a cast-iron guarantee of anti-harm reduction bias.
Dave Cross
Journalist at POTVDave is a freelance writer; with articles on music, motorbikes, football, pop-science, vaping and tobacco harm reduction in Sounds, Melody Maker, UBG, AWoL, Bike, When Saturday Comes, Vape News Magazine, and syndicated across the Johnston Press group. He was published in an anthology of “Greatest Football Writing”, but still believes this was a mistake. Dave contributes sketches to comedy shows and used to co-host a radio sketch show. He’s worked with numerous vape companies to develop content for their websites.
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