PBS documentary spews more falsehoods on fake youth vaping epidemic

Lindsey Stroud

A new documentary is premiering next week on Idaho Public Television that attempts to bring more attention to what “has become an epidemic here in Idaho” on youth vaping. What unsuspecting viewers do not understand is that this 2023 alarmist feature relies on outdated survey data and uses gimmicky and misleading headlines to spread more fear about alternatives to smoking. Given that the anti-vaping campaign is being funded with “tobacco settlement dollars,” it is deplorable that a broadcast station that claims to earn “the trust of [their] viewers by providing engaging, informative and balanced media content” would allow this to “documentary” to air on March 21.

Last month, Dr. Brian King (director of the Center for Tobacco Products at the U.S. Food and Drug administration (FDA)), declared that the FDA “has not used [the word epidemic] to use the most recent estimates of youth use … [and] that the science has shown a decline in the number of youth users, and that’s a good thing.” It may be helpful for the producers of the documentary to read Dr. King’s statement.

According to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), youth vaping declined from one in five middle and high school students (20 percent) that were currently using e-cigarettes in 2019, to less than one in ten (9.4 percent) of them using them in 2022.

In Idaho, according to data from the 2021 Idaho Healthy Youth Survey (IHYS), conducted by the Idaho Governor’s Office of Drug Policy, youth vaping seems to have peaked in 2019 when 14.6 percent of Idaho middle and high school students reported using an e-cigarette on at least one occasion in the 30 days prior to the survey. In 2021, only 8.8 percent of youth reported current e-cigarette use, a 39.7 percent decline from 2019. But, the documentary does not take note of this. Instead, the trailer declares that one in five Idaho students vape. This is incorrect.

Like other efforts to mischaracterize e-cigarettes, the documentary attacks flavors in vapor products, claiming that these are the reasons for the explosion in youth use. According to the IHYS, nearly half (44.4 percent) of Idaho students that had ever used an e-cigarette cited using them because a friend or family member had, compared to only 21.3 percent who had cited using them because they were available in flavors. Nationally (in 2022), of middle and high school students that were current e-cigarette users, 43.4 percent had used them to self-medicate feelings of anxiety, depression and/or stress, while only 13.2 percent had used them because of flavors.

Meanwhile, adults utilize flavored e-cigarettes to both help aid in them switching away from combustible cigarettes, as well as help them maintain cigarette cessation.

A 2018 survey of nearly 70,000 American adult vapers found that 83.2 percent and 72.3 percent of respondents reported vaping fruit and dessert flavors, respectively. A 2020 cohort study of nearly 18,000 participants found that “adults who began vaping non-tobacco flavored e-cigarettes were more likely to quit smoking than those who vaped tobacco flavors.”

In 2021, an estimated 7.4 percent of Idahoans aged 18 or older were currently using e-cigarettes, according to data from the CDC. This represents a 60.9 percent increase from 2017’s 4.6 percent. Meanwhile, according to the IHYS, vaping among Idaho youth decreased by 36.7 percent, from 13.9 percent of students in 2017 to 8.8 percent in 2021.

More troublesome is that the documentary, as well as the entire anti-vape campaign, is being funded by the same adults who smoke and could benefit from switching to less harmful alternatives, including flavored vapor products.

Each year, the state of Idaho collects millions of dollars in cigarette excise taxes and tobacco settlement payments, which are based upon the number of cigarettes sold in the state. Overwhelmingly, both the excise tax and settlement payments are pushed down to the consumer, or the adults who smoke. In 2021, Idaho collected $33.9 million in state cigarette excise taxes and $22.1 million in settlement payments, yet spent only $3.6 million in state funding for tobacco control programs, including cessation, education, and youth prevention. For every $1 the state received from the sales of cigarettes, it allocated only $0.06 to help adults quit.

It is time to set the record straight that youth vaping in Idaho is not at epidemic levels. Viewers would be better served to watch Dancing with the Stars rather than watching this alarmist documentary. The documentary is full of falsehoods that relies on dated data and tries to manufacture a fake vaping epidemic – which even the FDA doesn’t recognize.

Originally published in The Center Square.