Scientific rigor plummets

A public health expert in the US has demolished claims by some researchers that vaping causes chronic obstructive lung disease (COPD).

One researcher was said to be claiming that the use of electronic cigarettes increases the risk of COPD ‘just like’ smoking does.

Dr. Michael Siegel (pictured), a Professor in the Department of Community Health Sciences, Boston University School of Public Health, writing on his blog, said the paper, published in Drug and Alcohol Dependence, reported the results of a cross-sectional study based on the 2016 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) survey in Hawaii. ‘The outcome variable was reporting ever having been told that one has COPD,’ Siegel said. ‘The main predictor variable was ever having used an e-cigarette. ‘The key finding of the study was that: “there was a significant association of e-cigarette use with COPD among non-smokers … but the association was not significant among smokers…”.

Siegel went on to say that it was not possible to conclude or even speculate, based on the results of this cross-sectional study, that vaping was a cause of COPD disease – emphysema and chronic bronchitis.

Siegel looked at such factors as sample size, but explained that the worst problem with the conclusions and speculation was that they were biologically implausible.

And he went on to say that he believed there was a strong, subconscious bias among many researchers who were so determined to find an association between vaping and chronic disease that they were forgetting basic pathology.

‘The reason this is all so disturbing to me is not simply that it shows how scientific rigor in tobacco control literature has deteriorated,’ he said. ‘It is disturbing because disseminating these scientifically unsupported claims is going to discourage many smokers from trying to quit using e-cigarettes and may even cause many former smokers to return to smoking.’