Summary
The Dr. Lawrence H. and Roberta Cohn Forums
The Vaping Debate and Health: Evidence and Unknowns
Presented jointly with Reuters
Friday, February 14, 2020
Brief Video Highlight
Increasingly popular, vaping is hotly debated in healthcare and policymaking. On the one hand, advocates for e-cigarettes argue that they are a safer alternative to tobacco, which causes millions of deaths around the world every year. But with youth vaping rates skyrocketing, critics fear that a new generation is becoming addicted to nicotine, which is often found in vaping products and sometimes at higher concentrations, with little evidence for the devices’ long-term safety. Meanwhile, a spate of vaping-related illnesses and deaths has demonstrated how far the growth of vaping has outpaced regulation and research. While CDC scientists traced most of the deaths to an additive in black-market THC vaping cartridges, confusion persists over what products are safe for consumers. This Forum weighed the pros and cons of vaping from a public health and policy perspective, looking at both legal and illicit uses of vaping devices, and examined the impact of vaping-related illnesses on the future of e-cigarette regulation.
Links:
- GHELI Resource Brief: E-Cigarettes and Health (landing page)
- The Global Health Education and Learning Incubator at Harvard University (GHELI) supports interdisciplinary education about world health through the production, curation, and dissemination of educational public goods. Visit their interactive digital repository.
Part of: Policy Controversies, The Dr. Lawrence H. and Roberta Cohn Forums.
Presented jointly with Reuters
Image Credit: iStock: Rocky89
