{"id":24465,"date":"2025-05-15T11:08:39","date_gmt":"2025-05-15T11:08:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/?p=24465"},"modified":"2025-05-15T11:08:42","modified_gmt":"2025-05-15T11:08:42","slug":"opinion-if-vaping-kills-what-else-are-they-lying-about","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/en\/post\/opinion-if-vaping-kills-what-else-are-they-lying-about\/","title":{"rendered":"OPINION: If vaping kills, what else are they lying about?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Oliv\u00e9r Varhelyi\u2019s appointment as EU Commissioner for Health wasn\u2019t a slam dunk.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Members of the European Parliament – wary of the Hungarian nominee\u2019s close ties to the country\u2019s autocratic leader Viktor Orban – wanted assurances that his views on abortion (it\u2019s often speculated that he thinks it should be banned) and vaccines (Hungary distributed ineffective Chinese and Russian vaccines during COVID) wouldn\u2019t lead to a deluge of misinformation infecting the hallowed halls of the European Commission\u2019s Berlaymont headquarters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In an effort to reassure MEPs and shore up his nomination, Varhelyi submitted a written statement<\/a> late last year saying that \u201c[P]rotecting European citizens from the harmful effects of disinformation will be a top priority for me, including in the area of public health\u201d<\/strong>. He was confirmed shortly thereafter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fast forward to Tuesday (13 May 2025). Varhelyi, who appeared to be working from pre-prepared statements, told the European Parliament\u2019s Environment Committee that vaping “has created completely new health risks that are comparable to, or even greater than, smoking itself”, citing \u201carticles on popcorn lung\u201d as evidence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Before we go any further, let\u2019s briefly address the substance of that statement. There has never been a confirmed case of popcorn lung caused by vaping<\/a>. And even the most hardened anti-vape advocates, when pushed, will admit that vaping is far less harmful than smoking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So apparently, Varhelyi\u2019s war against disinformation isn\u2019t quite as sacrosanct as we had been led to believe.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Had this been an isolated incident, we might be able to put it down to a rogue Commissioner, appointed at the behest of the EU\u2019s pariah Member State, freelancing in front of a Committee to please his masters in Budapest. After all, Hungary has some of the worst anti-vaping laws in the whole of Europe, and Orban\u2019s Fidesz party was one of the few populist outfits to vote through the Commission\u2019s proposed ban on vaping in all public spaces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alas, this is not the case.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Varhelyi isn\u2019t even the first European Commissioner to make that statement this year. In February, Climate and tax Commissioner Wopke Hoekstra – in an effort to get his proposals on high nicotine taxes over the line<\/a> – told another Parliamentary Committee<\/a> that \u201cvaping kills\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And just this week, WHO Director General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a webinar of fellow tobacco control travellers<\/a> that \u201ctobacco kills no matter how it is packaged\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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It seems that those in power are now going to argue that vaping is just as bad as smoking, despite the overwhelming weight of evidence saying the opposite. This isn\u2019t just wrong, it\u2019s dangerous, and has implications for legitimate battles against disinformation where it really matters. It\u2019s a new low.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Both Hoekstra and Tedros have railed against disinformation in other areas. Areas where fighting disinformation really matters, like climate change and vaccine policy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hoekstra has often taken to LinkedIn to tout his strongly held beliefs on the subject. The day before Varhelyi\u2019s statement, Hoekstra tweeted<\/a> \u201cI cannot stress enough the importance of science informing our policy-making in these times of disinformation\u201d<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He\u2019s especially keen on countering disinformation about climate change: in fact, this is part of his formal brief at the European Commission<\/a>. He recently took to LinkedIn to link climate disinformation to Russia:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cClimate disinformation is the intentional dissemination of false information related to climate change and climate action\u201d, he wrote. \u201cIt can take many forms: from blatant denial or conspiracy theories to more subtle forms of misinformation\u2026It\u2019s often used by foreign adversaries such as Russia to disrupt societies or to push an agenda\u201d.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Now, replace the word \u201cclimate\u201d with the word \u201cvaping\u201d and you\u2019ll see the problem here.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tedros\u2019 war on disinformation has been – rightly – ongoing since the pandemic, where the WHO sought to address vaccine disinformation. More recently, he\u2019s called concerns about the WHO\u2019s pandemic treaty \u201cfake news\u201d, and argued on Twitter<\/a> that \u201c[w]e find ourselves in a time where fake news, lies, conspiracy theories, misinformation and disinformation are rampant\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This should not need to be said, but I suppose I have to say it: the concept of disinformation is only meaningful when it applies equally. When you rail against disinformation in one area while actively disseminating it from a position of power in another, some might conclude that you are a hypocrite. And when they do, why should they take you seriously when you talk about global warming or vaccines?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If politicians want to argue for vape bans, there are ways of doing it which, while fundamentally flawed, don\u2019t rise to the level of outright lies and disinformation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

They can argue that helping adults quit isn\u2019t worth the risk of kids vaping. They can argue that they don\u2019t think any new addictive products should be placed on the market from a moral perspective. They could even be honest, and argue that they think people who smoke are somehow weak or inferior and don\u2019t deserve the option of making better and safer choices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But if they\u2019re now saying it\u2019s acceptable for political and medical authority figures to straight up lie about vaping on camera because it fits their political agenda, then who are they to then say that Russian war disinformation or climate disinformation or vaccine disinformation are a threat to our societies?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some people don\u2019t like the fact that safer nicotine products are widely available. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I hold the opposite view. I should be able to have a debate with someone on the other side which, while contentious, would at least be honest.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I can talk about my personal experience of quitting smoking with vapes and pouches and how I\u2019ve seen thousands of others do the same. This theoretical other person could talk about how they\u2019ve seen young people vaping; they probably have and no solution is perfect. I can point to the data that supports my argument, they can point to the data that supports theirs. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

They can point out my conflicts of interest: I\u2019ve worked in and around the industry profiting from safer products for the last decade; and yes, I have my own biases. Perhaps this fictitious person has their own biases too, like the pharmaceutical executives I argued with the last time Europe tried to ban vapes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(For clarity: I have never advocated for anything other than the harshest regulation of smoked products and support things like plain packaging and display bans).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This fictitious person and I can have an honest conversation about balancing my concerns with theirs, while maintaining at least some level of mutual respect. I\u2019ve had lots of conversations like this over the years. I enjoy most of them, and I often learn new things (props to the tobacco control activist who once explained in great detail why the most effective tobacco control measure any government could take would be to insist on spherical packaging for cigarettes).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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But the moment that an argument is based on the obvious falsehood that vapes are \u201cjust as bad as smoking\u201d, the entire discussion becomes pointless. You either truly believe it, in which case you\u2019re illiterate; or you\u2019re knowingly lying, in which case you\u2019re dishonest. <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

And that\u2019s where we are. It seems clear that the \u201cjust as bad as smoking\u201d argument is now being rolled out across the EU and WHO in a co-ordinated way despite the fact that it was proven to be fake news years ago. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

That begets two questions: will this hurt Europeans who just want to quit smoking? And why should Europeans believe what politicians rightly tell them about disinformation in other parts of public life?<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Oliv\u00e9r Varhelyi\u2019s appointment as EU Commissioner for Health wasn\u2019t a slam dunk.\u00a0 Members of the European Parliament – wary of the Hungarian nominee\u2019s close ties to the country\u2019s autocratic leader Viktor Orban – wanted assurances that his views on abortion (it\u2019s often…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":990004,"featured_media":24466,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[257],"tags":[334,337,25,186],"slider":[],"class_list":["post-24465","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-global","tag-hungary","tag-news","tag-nicotine"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24465","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/990004"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24465"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24465\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24472,"href":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24465\/revisions\/24472"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24466"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24465"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24465"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24465"},{"taxonomy":"slider","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/slider?post=24465"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}