Lies in The Mirror

Since publishing its story, other media outlets decided to cover it – so the misinformation is now being spread by all regional newspapers, The Mail, Yahoo News, The Express, LADbible, Joe.co.uk, the Evening Standard, and the Daily Record.

Plans for the study were announced back in 2023, when Manchester Metropolitan said: “Electronic cigarettes – commonly referred to as e-cigarettes or vapes – have become increasingly popular in the last decade due to their reputation as being a healthier alternative to a traditional cigarette.

“However, due to them being relatively new on the market, very little research has been done on the long-term impacts vaping has on health.

“Researchers believe that although vaping is likely to be better for an individual than smoking cigarettes, using them on a regular basis will still have significant impacts.”

In the Mirror’s article, Boidin claims: “Vaping may be more dangerous to the body than cigarettes - putting long-term users at risk of dementia, heart disease and organ failure.”

This is a tiny study so the results can’t support any sweeping claims

The cohort was just 20 vapers, 20 cigarette smokers, and a control group of 20 individuals who do not smoke anything at all.

The study was biased from the outset

Maxime Boidin presupposed vaping poses risks similar to cigarettes: “We should heed the lessons from the mistakes made in the 1980s regarding traditional cigarettes and avoid repeating similar errors with e-cigarettes.”

Boidin also predicted the results, having the audacity to add: “Although our research won’t be published for around 18-months, we hope that our findings will help to inform guidelines and regulations on the sale of e-cigarettes in the future.”

The study did not determine the long-term impact of vaping

It ran for 12 months.

Ludicrous claim of death caused by vaping

The Mirror states as fact that the death of Hollyoaks star Paul Danan was caused by “excessive vaping”. This is anecdotal and not supported by a statement from any of his doctors.

“Other shocking cases have emerged of collapsed lungs, fainting or vomiting ominous green liquid, linked to heavy vaping,” continues Matt Roper. This is absolute nonsense and not supported by the science.

Public Health England does not exist

Emphasising how fast and loose Roper plays with the truth; he continually refers to Public Health England. This body was dissolved on 1 October 2021 and replaced by The UK Health Security Agency. If he can’t get that simple fact correct then what hope is there for the science?

Dr Maxime Boidin does not understand nicotine self-titration

Matt Roper writes: “[Boidin] believes vaping can actually be more dangerous than smoking because it’s much harder to know when to stop.”

Vapers self-titrate. They vape until they receive enough nicotine in their blood. They stop vaping at this point because to continue to do so renders them feeling sick. Vapers do not continue using their devices all of the time, claims that they do are fallacious.

Boidin fails to understand why vapes work as a smoking cessation tool

He told The Mirror that vapes should be prescription-only (like in Australia where he worked for a while). He also believes vapes should only be available to smokers for “a short time”.

Vapes work up to three times better than traditional NRT products (according to a study by Peter Hajek) because they are used longer term and therefore prevent relapse to tobacco. Limiting the time people can vape would negate this and result in higher relapse rates.

Non-scientist politicians are fooled by the misinformation

Rachael Maskell is quoted as saying, “we now know the long-term effects of vaping” – we don’t, this study does not provide that information, adding, “This study adds to the body of evidence that vaping can cause significant harm to a person.” It most certainly does not.

Why are his claims not valid?

In addition to the tiny cohort size and limited time the process ran for, the paper hasn’t been published yet – therefore no experts have been able to peer review Boidin’s methodology, results and conclusions.

When there was similar coverage of a ‘shock horror’ study last year, Rachel Richardson, Manager at the Methods Support Unit at Cochrane, said: “There are several reasons to be cautious about the findings of this study and the way in which the press release has been phrased. I list below some of the key limitations.

“Firstly, this is unpublished research, and so independent scientists have not yet scrutinised the methods and the results. Peer review is a crucial part of the scientific process and it is a major concern that these findings are being widely disseminated without this scrutiny.

“Secondly, the fact that the study authors seem to have found an association between performance in exercise testing and vaping in young people cannot be interpreted to mean that vaping causes a reduced capacity for exercise. There could be many other reasons for this finding, for example, people who vape may exercise less regularly than people who do not. The authors do note in their presentation that all groups were ‘physically active’, but there could still be major differences in the amount of exercise undertaken. It is also important to note that this is a very small sample, and may not be representative of all young people who do and do not vape.”

Volunteer criteria was flawed

Moreover, the volunteer criteria was a minimum of three months smoking/vaping and three months of abstinence. This is not sufficient. As detailed in all coverage of the timeline of health improvements following a successful stop smoking episode, years of abstinence are required to remove previous smoking from being a factor in health measurements such as the ones carried out by Dr Boidin.

The impact of Matt Roper’s article

At the time of writing, a poll on The Mirror’s webpage shows 72% of people are worried about vapes without genuine cause, simply because of the likes of Roper’s ropey work.

In 2023, Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) pleaded with media organisations to act more responsibly and to consult it prior to publishing negative stories about vaping.

ASH even produced an explainer of myths surrounding vaping for journalists so they could avoid putting false statements into print, such as “Vaping nicotine is more harmful than smoking tobacco”. Clearly, Roper is either blissfully unaware of its existence or has ignored its contents.

Going to press with stories based on unpublished, non-reviewed work is immoral when the impact of such articles will only serve to prolong the time smokers continue to use tobacco products. Moreover, such junk science feeds into a narrative that appeals to the biases of politicians who then make poor legislation.

This costs lives.

Photo Credit:

• Image created by author with logo added

Dave Cross

Journalist at POTV

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Dave 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 start-ups to develop content for their websites.