MYTH: Vaping causes seizures.

May 31, 2019

FACT: Vaping merely existing causes existential dread in big tobacco companies and hysteria in already overly hyperbolic news cycles.

You might have recalled all of a whole month ago that in April a lot of news sites covered an alarming announcement from the Food and Drug Administration about a potential link between vaping and seizures. This was caught up into the massive miasma of hysterical anti-vape narrative that's currently running rampant and frequently misinforming the public at large.

In America there are nearly 11 million adults who currently use vapes and eLiquids.  Out of those 11 million souls the FDA had received reports of 35 cases of seizures between 2010 and 2019 who had experienced seizures either during or up to 24 hours after vaping. According to the FDA, some of those experiencing the seizures had a prior history of seizures and some had used other drugs prior to the seizures, such as marijuana or amphetamines.

Because the reports had been sent to the FDA voluntarily, primarily through poison control centers, the FDA did not have nearly enough data to accurately determine whether or not there was any actual link between vaping and seizures.  They also could not have enough data to pinpoint whether any specific brands, sub-brands, e-cigarettes, pods, or any specific devices at all were involved.

How you can tell this is all literal hysteria being pushed by clueless rhetoric amplified hucksters is in the FDA’s initial statement regarding the potential link between vaping and seizures quite factually stated; “We want to be clear that we don’t yet know if there’s a direct relationship between the use of e-cigarettes and a risk of seizure. We can’t yet say for certain that e-cigarettes are causing these seizures. We’re sharing this early information with the public because as a public health agency, it’s our job to communicate about potential safety concerns associated with the products we regulate that are under scientific investigation by the agency.”

Making the anti-vape nonsense even more evident just a few days later acting FDA Commissioner Mitch Zeller was speaking at a conference and in his keynote address he staid that while the FDA was continuing to monitor any potential connections between e-cigarettes and seizures, he acknowledged that there was “no causality” between e-cigarette use and the risk of seizure.

Why did this get so out of hand from a clearly benign report? Well the news cycles love their full spin and hating on vape is just one of the turns of the drum they love to beat.  What do you think about this anti-vape hysteria? Will vaping ever be seen in the light of truth for the net benefit to public health that it is?

Leave a comment

Name *

Email *

Comment *

---

Also in Northland Vapor News