Study Says A Majority Of People Mistakenly Link Nicotine To Cancer

In the short time it's taken for vaping to grow into a major industry, one of the most common myths that get frustratingly repeated by news agencies is how vaping is allegedly “linked” to causing cancer, despite a dearth of evidence proving such a link. These claims are the result of years of bias against big-money tobacco companies, despite the fact that their very markets are threatened by vaping's rising popularity.

A new study from the prominent research group Pinney Associates finds that most people are susceptible to one of the most prominent misconceptions about tobacco and tobacco alternatives in general: that nicotine is linked to cancer, when in fact it’s the burning of organic matter that releases nearly all of the carcinogens in combustible tobacco products.   

While patently untrue, it's easy to see how many people could make the mistake of believing nicotine is related to cancer. Smokers smoke cigarettes because they're addicted to nicotine. Smoking combustible cigarettes release cancer-causing carcinogens. Therefore, the assumption follows, cancer must, in some way, be connected to nicotine.  

Misinterpreting causality for harmful diseases like cancer is one of the main things that we constantly feel compelled to offer commentary that corrects the record, because these false beliefs have real-life implications when it comes to regulation of products based on the relative harm that comes to the vape users compared to smoking.

Back to the study - researchers looked at data from 1,736 adults in the government-run 2017 health information national trends survey. They found that 85 percent of people believe nicotine causes people to want to continue smoking (true), while 53 percent of believe that nicotine is the cause of cancer related to smoking combustible cigarettes (false).

The study had some good news for vapers, who they found are three times less likely as smokers to believe this misinformation about the link between nicotine and cancer: 52.5 percent of smokers answered the survey incorrectly, compared to only 14.6 percent of vapers. Still, only 31.6 percent of smokers understood that e-cigs are less harmful than cigarettes.

There are many reasons that these figures cause harm to the vaping community. First, it creates a stigma that cuts into the vape industry’s arguments that vaping can be a powerful harm reduction tool for smokers. Further, it makes it easier to believe other dubious reasons to link cancer to vaping.

Ultimately, our goal is to advocate for a fair and sensible regulatory policy concerning vaping, one that keeps vapor products out of the hands of minors and discourages non-smokers from acquiring a nicotine habit while at the same time encouraging smokers who are having trouble quitting to seek out safer alternatives. We're all entitled to our own opinions, but serious damage is done when we're working with different sets of (often incorrect) facts.