Glantz’ research revenue from the Californian smoking tax and other sources might be threatened if vaping were to become a success story in the United States as it is in the UK. He hasn’t interviewed a single British vaper or smoker for this study. Instead, Glantz, Kulik and Lisha performed a “cross-sectional logistic regression of the association between being a former smoker and e-cigarette use … applied to the 2014 Eurobarometer survey of 28 European Union countries”.
The paper concludes: “daily use of e-cigarettes is associated with lower odds of being a former smoker”, meaning that the team claims regular vapers don’t quit smoking. Moreover, they also claim to have discovered that “current cigarette smokers who also use e-cigarettes smoke significantly more cigarettes per day than smokers who do not use e-cigarettes.”
The team clearly set out with a set conclusion in mind and managed to manipulate the data to lead them to state: “These results, based on a large data set from the EU, suggest that e-cigarettes are associated with inhibiting rather than assisting in smoking cessation.”
This directly contradicts so many British studies like the one involving Dr Robert West in 2014, where the team looked at 5863 real people instead of just manipulating data to get a result that agrees with your position.
Cancer Research also believes that vaping has helped British smokers to quit smoking, based on the following cited studies:
- Barbeau AM, Burda J, Siegel M. Perceived efficacy of e-cigarettes versus nicotine replacement therapy among successful e-cigarette users: a qualitative approach. Addict Sci Clin Pract. 2013;8(1):5. doi:10.1186/1940-0640-8-5.
- Etter J-F, Bullen C. Electronic cigarette: users profile, utilization, satisfaction and perceived efficacy. Addiction. 2011;106(11):2017-2028. doi:10.1111/j.1360-0443.2011.03505.x.
- Etter J-F. Electronic cigarettes: a survey of users. BMC Public Health. 2010;10:231. doi:10.1186/1471-2458-10-231.
- Bullen C, Howe C, Laugesen M, et al. Electronic cigarettes for smoking cessation : a randomised controlled trial. Lancet. 2013;6736(13):1-9.
- Caponnetto P, Campagna D, Cibella F, et al. Efficiency and Safety of an electronic cigarette (ECLAT) as tobacco cigarettes substitute: a prospective 12-month randomized control design study. PLoS One. 2013;8(6):e66317. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0066317.
- Brown J, Beard E, Kotz D, Michie S, West R. Real-world effectiveness of e-cigarettes when used to aid smoking cessation: a cross-sectional population study. Addiction. May 2014. doi:10.1111/add.12623.
- Mcrobbie H, Bullen C, Hajek P. Electronic cigarettes for smoking cessation and reduction ( Review ). Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2014;(12).
It has to be a sign that the logical arguments from (and sound science being conducted in) Britain are holding more sway with decision makers in the United States – and Glantz is worried. His paper is another shameful example of the corrupted thinking and total disregard for the health of current smokers that is going on in California.