A World Health Organization publication on electronic cigarettes sparks great controversy

GENEVA – The World Health Organization has come under fire after claiming that smoking e-cigarettes can lead to an epileptic seizure within hours.

This led to X publishing a community note, which said: “The organization’s publication is based on inconclusive evidence using studies that have not been peer-reviewed. This claim is based on approximately 120 incidents that occurred since 2019, the results of which were inconclusive.”

The memo included a link to an editorial about vaping and seizures, which criticized a 2019 study that analyzed a series of 122 epileptic seizures and other neurological symptoms among people who reported smoking e-cigarettes.

The researchers in the study suggested that because nicotine’s convulsive effects, meaning it may lead to convulsions, may be responsible for the seizures and symptoms.

However, the editorial said the details of the study “raise questions about causality, which must be taken into account when assessing the actual health threat from nicotine smoking in youth.”

She added: “The big question is why inhaled nicotine from e-cigarettes causes seizures, while nicotine from traditional cigarettes does not.”

The authors of the editorial explained that nicotine can cause anxiety attacks and involuntary muscle contractions that some people may interpret as epileptic seizures even though they are not.

“Please provide peer-reviewed evidence for this claim that vaping causes seizures within 24 hours,” said Dr. Charles Gardner, a developmental neurobiologist in Brooklyn. If you cannot do this (WHO), please delete the tweet. Note: I searched the literature and could not find a single study showing an increased risk of seizures.”

Other users described the World Health Organization’s post as “clownish and lies.”

The new wave of criticism comes at a time when the organization is still trying to regain people’s trust, especially after what many considered a failed response by the World Health Organization to the “Covid” epidemic.

The organization advised against wearing masks for several months at the beginning of the epidemic, and many scientists criticized the World Health Organization’s reluctance to acknowledge that “Covid” is frequently spread in the air and by people who do not show symptoms.

It is worth noting that an important study found that vaping can increase the risk of eight lung diseases.

Smoking traditional cigarettes has long been linked to fatal conditions such as lung cancer, diabetes, heart disease and stroke. Their smoking rates decreased as vaping rates increased.

Source: Daily Mail