Clowns At A Vaping Convention

If you think you'd seen it all when it comes to tobacco control junk science, wait till you get a load of this story of everyday charlatans visiting a vaping convention, published last month. Yes, this was actually published.

Assessment of indoor air quality at an electronic cigarette (Vaping) convention

E-cigarette (vaping) conventions are public events promoting electronic cigarettes, in which indoor use of e-cigarettes is allowed. The large concentration of people using e-cigarettes and poor air ventilation can result in indoor air pollution. In order to estimate this worst-case exposure to e-cigarettes, we evaluated indoor air quality in a vaping convention in Maryland (MD), USA.

Now, the first thing to note about this is that they didn't seem to seek permission from the venue or the organisers to conduct this research. No, instead they attended as if they were just interested observers and hid their measuring equipment inside backpacks.

All sampling equipment was placed inside a backpack and carried around the convention venue. Three teams of two people each took turns carrying the backpack inside the venue.

Now, why do you think they'd do that? Surely if they are altruistically performing an objective assessment with no ulterior motive they would simply explain that to the organisers. But, of course, if your motive is to concoct an attack piece solely with a goal of spreading muck about e-cig vapour, if you were to tell the organisers that you were unbiased, they would have every right to call you a disgusting liar when the study was completed, and would have a good case to demand answers from the relevant ethics board. So best just to keep the equipment hidden away, eh?

Because the study was either designed solely to demonise vapour, or the researchers are incredibly fucking stupid. You decide.

In our study, the estimated 24-h time-TWA PM10 was 1,800 μg/m3, which is 12 fold higher than the National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) 24-h TWA PM10 limit (150 μg/m3) established by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and 36-fold higher than the air quality standards of the European Commission (50 µg/m3). The peak PM10 concentration reached 17,860 μg/m3. 

Ambient Air Quality Standard? What does that mean? Well it means the standard for outdoors, which is an odd standard to use for a study on vapers inside a vaping convention. Was this just incompetence or do you think they know that the outdoor standard is set lower? This is because if you are exposed to pollutants in the air outdoors they are ever-present. You cannot avoid them and they are all around you, all day. People visiting or working at a vape convention are not exposed for 24 hours or for days on end, as they may be in city air. The appropriate comparator is an occupational exposure not air quality standards for cities, but they didn't use it.

Still, those numbers are scary aren't they? Well kinda, except that they are talking about particulates as if vapour is the same threat as other airborne pollutants. The Scottish EPA describes 'particulate matter' as "the term used to describe particles of soot (carbon), metals or inorganic salts", while the US Environmental Protection Agency categorises them as "emitted directly from a source, such as construction sites, unpaved roads, fields, smokestacks or fires.  Most particles form in the atmosphere as a result of complex reactions of chemicals such as sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides, which are pollutants emitted from power plants, industries and automobiles.". E-cig vapour is an aerosol made up of liquid droplets, which are entirely different chemically and physically. Again, do you think they knew this or are just thick?

They were more realistic when comparing the levels they recorded with occupational (i.e. indoors) particulates not otherwise regulated.

Furthermore, for more than 50% of the time during the vaping convention, the PM10 concentration stayed over 10,000 μg /m3, reaching the TWA inhalable particle guideline of the American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists.

10,000 μg /m3 is, indeed, (averaged over 8 hours) the permissible exposure limit for non-specific particles, except that the junk scientists researchers did average their readings out (emphasis mine).

PM10 concentrations using integrated sampling were 8,850 and 8,429 μg/m3, (mean = 8,639 μg/m3), which was consistent with the overall mean PM10 concentration obtained from the real-time monitor.

So, their readings were actually well inside the permissible - let me say that again, permissible - exposure limit for indoor areas.

So nothing to see then, right? Well, no tobacco controller worth his salt would ever come up with anything that honest, they'd soon be kicked out of the Globalink junk scientist club if they did. No, they concluded quite differently.

These results can inform FDA policy by supporting restricting use of e-cigarettes indoors, and recommending worker protections at vaping venues, such as vape shops and lounges. Protections may include increased ventilation, and requiring extensive cleaning procedures after each convention, to minimize potential third-hand exposure to future users of the venue.

Yep, it was just a convoluted and bent ruse to advise the FDA to ban vaping indoors. The reference to "third-hand exposure" just proves further that these people are conniving shysters who would be drummed out of their profession if it wasn't for the fact they happen to be part of the morally-bankrupt and scientifically-corrupt tobacco control industry.

So, to sum up, these weird people took their measurements secretly, which arguably cast doubt on their ethics; they used an outdoor quality level which is lower than indoors because it was more favourable to their pre-conceived conclusions; implied that vapour is on a par with bitumen and diesel fumes; categorised a specialist vaping event as being comparable to bars and offices which is quite absurd; and when even doing all that their measurements still came in within acceptable levels, nevertheless still demanded vaping be banned in public. Do you think they may have an agenda here?

Talking hypothetically, what if these recommendations were accepted by the FDA? The clear consequences would be to convince millions of people that e-cigs are lethal, and it would cause higher costs and regulatory burdens for every business in the USA, and all based on lies that they deliberately intended to tell. Can you see now why I say that many tobacco controllers should be in prison?

Still, luckily for Americans, that isn't going to happen while these clowns are demanding that the FDA restrict use of e-cigs indoors, because the FDA doesn't have jurisdiction over indoor air quality.

Idiots.