Hamilton, ON, March 20, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- While Canadians live through these unprecedented times surrounding the COVID-19 crisis, Stanton Glantz continues to spread false information regarding nicotine vape products. Glantz comments as quoted in the CTV article “How smoking, vaping and drug use might increase risks from COVID-19” not only show his bias against vaping but the complete lack of any facts to support his claims.

“The vaping industry stands with all Canadians to ensure that all appropriate measures are being taken to protect public health,” said Darryl Tempest, Executive Director, The Canadian Vaping Association. “Professor Glantz refuses to correct his ongoing biased statements regarding vaping, despite the fact that there is no evidence that regulated nicotine vaping products had anything to do with EVALI, and the fact that the CDC has been clear in their conclusion that pulmonary lung issues were a direct result of illicit black market THC products laced with vitamin E-acetate. His suggestion that vaping may now be related to cases of the COVID-19 illnesses, with absolutely no evidence to substantiate that claim, is not only completely irresponsible but shows a complete lack of the integrity that we expect from the academic community”. Tempest further clarified “This is not the first time Mr. Glantz has been clearly biased; in fact, the Journal of the America Heart Association was forced to retract a paper in which he had claimed that vaping causes heart attacks, a claim based on what was proven to be faulty research in which Glantz had been involved. Furthermore, at a convention in Ottawa, Glantz suggested that his research showed that for every adult who quit smoking using e-cigarettes, 80 kids started vaping. These are exactly the types of statements that need to be addressed with facts and not personal bias or agendas. There are an estimated 900,000 adult vapers in Canada, thus based on the 54% success rate for those that have quit smoking using these products, Dr. Glantz is suggesting that 38,880,000 children are vaping in a nation that has under 37,000,000 people?” Tempest goes on to say “Even if we apply the more conservative findings in the New England Journal of Medicine, which states that vaping has an 18% success rate the statement made by Dr. Glantz would still suggest that there are 12,960,000 youth vaping meanwhile there are only 4,146,397 children aged 10-19 in Canada”.

The government in Italy, one of the regions hit the hardest by COVID-19, is treating vape shops as an essential service by allowing them to continue to operate while other retailers are being shut down.  They made this decision in an effort to ensure that those that have switched to vaping don’t return to smoking combustible tobacco. In their decision, they cited Dr. Riccardo Polosa, world-renowned scientist and researcher, who indicated that vapers switching back to smoking would cause a rise in acute exacerbation of lung illnesses amongst many individuals who had seen extremely beneficial health impacts from quitting smoking through the use of vape products.

There are an estimated 1.1 million vapers across Canada that rely on vape shops to ensure that they don’t return to smoking or turn to black market homemade e-liquids to satisfy their nicotine cravings. We are working with Governments across Canada and the 1,200 vape shops across our nation to ensure that those addicted to nicotine are not forced to returning to the use of combustible tobacco products, our nations leading cause of death.

About the Canadian Vaping Association

The Canadian Vaping Association (thecva.org) is a registered national, not-for-profit organization, established as the voice for the burgeoning Canadian vaping industry. Founded in 2014, the CVA represents over 300 retail and online vaping businesses in Canada, not including tobacco companies or affiliates. The association is the primary liaison with the federal and provincial governments on all legislative and regulatory issues related to the industry. The primary goal of CVA is to ensure that government regulation is reasonable and practical, through the strategy of professional proactive communication and education supplied bilingually to health officers, media, and elected officials.
For more information, please contact:

Darryl Tempest
The Canadian Vaping Association 
6472741867
dtempest@thecva.org