Recently a new study has started making headlines. The study finds there’s an increase in vaping-relating calls into poison control centers. In general, this isn’t a study that hasn’t been done before, many times.
Here’s something I do find interesting about the latest study. That it came out right after the FDA’s deeming regulations.
Think about it. The FDA puts out regulations that everyone with any sense realize will put good people out of business and hand the whole industry over to a few big-money players, everyone is up and arms and the negative aspect of the regulations is getting a lot of the news cycle. All of a sudden here’s a story about how those e-cigarettes the FDA is out to get are killing babies!
I don’t know, maybe it’s a coincidence, but it seems odd to me. This is especially true because these poison control studies aren’t exactly a new thing.
Over the last few years, we’ve seen a large sampling of assorted dire warnings that calls to poison control about kids ingesting e-liquid are on the rise. This is nothing new.
The fact the number is increasing shouldn’t really be a surprise since so has the use of electronic cigarettes. Naturally, every aspect of vaping will increase as the life-saving activity gains popularity. Some of those things like youth adoption and kids getting into unattended e-liquid will increase too.
But, if people start hearing headlines about kids getting killed (they aren’t) by e-liquid, that’s going to make the industry a whole lot less sympathetic, isn’t it?
Now, I’m pretty sure we will make the same complaints we always do about the studies. You know, things like toothpaste poisons more kids, or that e-liquid represents only 14% of all nicotine related poisonings (well behind nicotine gum and lozenges). I’ll also say what I always do that we need to do more to educate parents to treat e-liquid like you would laundry detergent. But, that’s not the point here, is it?
No, the point is to make e-cigarettes and vaping look like the bad guy here. Hell, take a look at this little tidbit from the study:
When kids got their hands on e-cigarettes, they were five times more likely to be admitted to a health facility and more than twice as likely to have serious medical problems compared to children exposed to traditional cigarettes, the study found.
That’s totally made to incense the public. There’s no mention of the much higher rate of hospitalization rate from big pharma’s quit smoking candies.
But again, refuting the claims of this study isn’t what I’m writing this for. Instead, I’m calling attention to the idea that the timing may not have been coincidence. Rather, maybe this is an effort to add a little bit of credibility to the FDA’s actions.
I wonder, will we see more “shocking” studies drop over the next few weeks?
What do you think? Is there something to this, or is it just a mere coincidence?
