Scientist Criticised for Misleading Vaping Claims

The study in question, conducted by Manchester Metropolitan University, claims that vaping may be as harmful or more harmful than smoking, associating it with increased risks of dementia, heart disease, and organ failure.

The research suggests that vapers and smokers exhibit similar patterns of blood vessel damage and impaired blood flow, potentially leading to serious health issues.

His alarmist claims go against years of meticulous, credible assessments¹ that find that vaping poses only a small fraction of the risks of smoking, according to Clive Bates, one-time director of Action on Smoking and Health UK (ASH) and a long-time public health advocate.

Bates wrote a scathing letter to Dr Maxime Boidin at Manchester Metropolitan University, asking why the work had not been subjected to scientific scrutiny.  

Bates says that rather than making wild claims in the newspaper, the extraordinary claims should have been backed by extraordinary evidence, but that the researchers did not provide any evidence, let alone enough evidence, to support the claim.

Boidin’s study, which included just 20 people, appears to have involved measuring arterial stiffening after the use of nicotine or nicotine withdrawal.  On the basis of the results, Boidin told the newspapers that vaping is as dangerous as smoking and made claims about dementia and organ failure.

Professor Michael Siegel of Tufts University said, "this study did not show that vaping is no better than smoking. Instead, what it showed was that the respiratory function and exercise capacity of ex-smokers takes a while to return to normal."

He concludes, "If this study is eventually published — and no reputable journal would do so — it will be too late to reverse these headlines."

"This study was reported in the tabloids as a first of its kind study showing the horrors of vaping when it is nothing of the sort", explains Dr Murphy.  

"I have to agree with Clive when he says this ranks with the worst kind of misinformation of the tobacco industry of the 1970s and will likely have the same effect – more smoking, disease, and death," she said.