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46 Regulation 38 (2023-2024)
Uneducating Americans on Vaping

handle is hein.journals/rcatorbg46 and id is 108 raw text is: 



38 / Regulation / SUMMER 2023


Uneducating Americans




on Vaping









False   ideas   about   comparative risk

result   in deadly ignorance.

    BY  JACOB   JAMES RICH AND
JONATHAN H. ADLER


             igarette smoking continues to be a leading cause
             of avoidable death in the United States. Nearly
             half a million Americans die each year from smok-
             ing-related diseases according to the Centers for
             Disease Control and Prevention. Understandably,
this makes reducing smoking and discouraging youth smoking
significant public health priorities.
   Fortunately, there are less dangerous ways for smokers to
satisfy their nicotine habits than smoking cigarettes. Electronic
cigarettes and other vaping products (so-called electronic nico-
tine delivery devices or ENDS) appear to be a substantially safer
substitute for combustible cigarettes. Such products can even help
some smokers quit altogether. Yet too few people know this, and
the ignorance appears to be getting worse.
   Since the Food and Drug Administration began regulating
ENDS  as tobacco products, public understanding of the rela-
tive risks ofvarious tobacco products has declined. The FDA and
many  other expert authorities accept that there is a continuum
of risk and that vaping is less dangerous than smoking. Yet, a
majority ofAmericans do not understand this to be true. Smokers
in particular do not realize there are less dangerous alternatives
to combustible cigarettes-alternatives that could save their lives.
   What explains widespread and worsening understanding of the
relative risks ofvaping? And what can be done about it? Improved
messaging and public statements from public health authorities
could help, but we are unconvinced such efforts would be enough.
The ability of government messaging to inform consumers is
inherently limited, particularly when public trust in institutions
JACOB JAMES RICH is a doctoral student at the Cleveland Clinic Lerner Research
Institute at the Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine and a policy
analyst at Reason Foundation.JONATHAN H. ADLER is the inauguralJohanVerheij
Memorial Professor of Law at the Case Western Reserve University School of Law.

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