President of the World Federation of Electronic Cigarette Users: Most of the e-cigarette content users read is negative

Blue Hole New Consumer Report, on May 13, Mike Randall, chairman of the world's e-cigarette users, recently wrote an article about the media's prejudice against e-cigarettes. The following is the full text:

Many vaping activists believe that one of the reasons for most misunderstandings about vaping is the way the media reports the issue. Regular exposure of the average person to claims that e-cigarettes can cause erectile dysfunction, blindness or cause EVALI.

At the same time, little mention was made of the fact that some 82 million smokers were able to quit because of vaping.

One of the most important public health victories of the past few decades has gone unnoticed by much of the public and policymakers. Instead, every fake study or survey gets a lot of media coverage and every true and enlightening report is ignored.

So I'm intrigued to check if this assumption is really correct.

Like most activists, I set up a Google alert with the word "vaping" and decided to check what types of articles I got from the alert for a week (23.4.22-1.5.22). This is clearly not scientific research. This is my concept of coverage - maybe a bit biased. Nonetheless, I thought it was interesting.

According to me, over 40% of the articles were negative, and I have to admit, I was a little surprised because I expected more negative coverage. Of the 41 articles, 29% were neutral and 29% were positive.

I picked this week at random, excluded all paywall, business-only, ads, and press releases, and didn't double-count the same article from different channels.

I only categorize articles based on how they cover the issue, not whether I agree with a particular opinion or policy. Does that mean both sides are fairly represented, or is it just the anti-vaping crowd?

While I expect more negative repercussions, the way the media is currently reporting on vaping is a problem - both for public health and consumers.

If governments followed the science and followed the UK's lead in encouraging smokers to switch to e-cigarettes, 200 million lives could be saved globally.

Instead, most of what we read about vaping is negative. Alarmism and lack of information about vaping are hurting smokers who are spooked by misinformation. This hostility to vaping also hurts thousands of activists around the world and makes it harder for them to make their mission to make it harder for as many people as possible to quit.