A widely-cited and highly damaging article on vaping’s alleged links to heart complaints has rightly been retracted by its publishers.
Electronic Cigarette Use and Myocardial Infarction Among Adults in the US Population Assessment of Tobacco and Health by Dharma Bhatta and Staton Glantz had fuelled widespread fears in the international media since its publication in June 2019.
The study’s publisher, Journal of the American Heart Association, is now concerned that its conclusions are ‘unreliable’. As a deadline for the authors to provide additional information was missed, the journal has formally retracted the study, effective immediately.
This retraction not only undermines the study’s credibility, it is something that UKVIA believes should have happened long ago given the damage it has caused to the vaping industry’s good name and the confusion it has led to among smokers who are looking to quit.
Co-author Glantz, of the US Center for Tobacoo Control Research and Education, is a noted critic of vaping. He recently featured on ITV’s Tonight programme, while his study has been used by various media outlets around the world.
John Dunne, spokesperson for the UKVIA, said:
‘We welcome the Journal of the American Heart Association’s decision to retract this study. Quality, peer-reviewed science consistently demonstrates the public health potential of vaping, while studies that reach unreliable conclusions such as this one risk keeping people smoking cigarettes. The duty now falls to those in the media, who have given this research and its authors a platform, to make their own urgent retractions and corrections.’