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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.