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Urge JAHA to Retract Bad Science – Tobacco Harm Reduction News

“Falsehood flies, and the Truth comes limping after it …”

-Jonathan Swift

Last week, Dr. Brad Rodu, a Professor of Medicine at the University of Louisville and long-time proponent of tobacco harm reduction, posted an update on his blog to a months-long story about a study with dangerously inaccurate conclusions regarding vaping and heart attacks. Dr. Rodu (and now a dozen other well-known and credible people in the tobacco and nicotine research and policy space) is calling out the study for erroneously concluding that switching to vaping from smoking increases one’s risk of heart attack. The inaccuracy of the conclusion can be linked to data being fabricated by the study’s authors, Drs. Stanton Glantz and Dharma Bhatta.

As a matter of transparency, study authors routinely disclose limitations of certain study protocols and data sets. But making up claims out of whole cloth is generally frowned upon. When evidence of such a fabrication is brought to the attention of journal editors, corrections must be published and, many times, the article in question needs to be retracted. Considering the consequences of discouraging people who smoke from switching to low-risk alternatives like vaping, this particular study deserves the full boat of remedial action, including retraction and possibly censure for the authors.

Taking Dr. Rodu’s suggestion in last week’s blog post to heart, CASAA is encouraging our members to make contact with the editors at The Journal of the American Heart Association (JAHA) urging them to formally retract the Glantz-Bhatta heart study.

A timeline of events and reporting on this issue follows below, along with a link to our engagement that you can use to easily send a message to JAHA editors.

While it is not a novel observation to say that conversations about tobacco control and drug use routinely neglect–and even dismiss–the people affected by intervention policies, it is rare that we find an opportunity to highlight and fight back against the “the ends justify the means” mentality of activist researchers and zealots.

Take a moment to send a message to JAHA editors sharing your story of switching to vaping and how making the switch has affected your health. If you have received feedback from your doctor related to observing improvements (especially related to heart health), be sure to include that too.

Send a Message

Stay Safer,

Alex Clark

CEO CASAA

 

P.S., Do you have your CASAA I Vape, I Vote State Shirt yet? Check out our New Store!

 

Take Action:

 

Highlights: (Jan. 31) (Feb. 2) (Feb. 3) (Feb. 4) (Feb. 5) (Feb. 6)

 

THE MORE YOU KNOW: Adding vaping to smoking bans isn’t just about enforcing “courtesy.” It causes the general public to equate vaping with smoking & agreeable to disincentives like high taxes & flavor bans.

Establishments ALREADY have the right to ban vaping without needing a law & now these smoking bans – without any scientific basis – often include OUTDOORS & PRIVATE RESIDENCES. That means vaping would be banned there, as well. There’s nothing “reasonable” about that.

ALL laws should be based on supported facts and indisputable science, not “feelings!”

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