Debunking Popular Vaping Myths (Again)
Americans are taught many myths about how the federal government operates. One of the most dangerous goes like this: the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) protects public health by regulating the foods and medicines we consume and by helping us “get the accurate, science-based information” we need to “maintain and improve” our health.
On some level that mission statement from the FDA’s website is accurate, but the agency routinely abandons its responsibilities and badly abuses its authority. In the case of the nicotine vapor industry, the FDA actually works against those stated goals by keeping millions of low-risk products off the market and lying about the benefits they could provide to adult smokers.
The FDA gets away with this misbehavior in large part because the media doesn’t hold the agency accountable. Rather than call out the FDA’s malfeasance, reporters cover it up. They don’t do this accidentally; instead, journalists carry water for public health bureaucrats because they naively trust them to do the right thing no matter how many times the FDA proves its underhanded intentions.
Let’s consider two examples from a recent story by NPR reporter Nina Totenburg called “FDA battles vaping industry at the Supreme Court,” which reads more like a thinly veiled press release from the agency itself than a news story.
The article begins with the egregious lie that nicotine vaping “has become increasingly popular” with teenagers, citing a former FDA official who says that “e-cigarettes have filled the vacuum” left by declining teen smoking rates.
In reality, teen smoking and teen vaping have both hit record lows in the last year. The FDA’s own data shows that daily vaping among teens is less than two percent. This information is publicly available and easy to find. A reporter covering the FDA and a former agency official–who now works for Tobacco-Free Kids, a virulent anti-vaping lobbying group–have no excuse for withholding those critical details from NPR readers.
The story then asserts that “FDA has made it increasingly difficult for vaping producers to sell their products using flavors that appeal to kids.” Notice the slanted framing: FDA is harshly regulating the vaping industry, but only to protect kids.
If she were honest, Totenburg would say that FDA claims it’s looking out for children even though there is no credible evidence that flavored nicotine uniquely appeals to kids. The FDA knows that is true; internal agency research, released publicly by my organization, shows FDA scientists clearly stating that the vast majority of adult smokers prefer flavored products. Again, not a word of this information was included in the NPR story.
Reporters make honest mistakes on occasion and should be forgiven in those cases. But when they churn out pro-FDA propaganda year after year (as NPR has), they should be publicly shamed until they start telling the whole story. The FDA’s vaping regulations jeopardize the health of millions of adult smokers. Any journalist who buries or excuses that terrible reality is a government apologist with no interest in the truth.
