No scientific research is ever complete - science itself is a self-correcting institution; technology progresses, and researchers and scientists are able to look back on previous findings and often discover that their analyses may have been inaccurate or more complex than initially expected. There are other instances, however, where scientific studies are conducted under unclear or illegitimate circumstances - and are published anyway.

In June of 2019, the Journal of the American Heart Association conducted a study that declared vape usage and cigarette usage posed an equal threat to the human body. More specifically, the study aimed to identify the presence of myocardial infarctions (blockages of blood flow to the heart, aka a heart attack) before or after those tested had used e-cigarettes.

It has since been discovered that during this study, reviewers and editors were unable to confirm whether the authors of the database known as PATH understood and complied with certain requests regarding the timeline of e-cig usage before publishing the findings. Because of these and other setbacks, the deadline determined by the editors to revise and complete this analysis could not be met. With this new information exposed, the study has been declared unreliable and has been officially retracted by the Journal of the American Heart Association.

While this news is a welcome announcement to the vape industry and surrounding community, the damage that the original study created over the last year will not be repaired quickly. Legislators across the nation have recently questioned the safety of electronic cigarette and vape use, and shifting regulations have wreaked havoc on businesses and individuals who are safely trying to slow and stop their cigarette and nicotine usage. 

Compared to cigarettes, vape e-liquid is designed for far more safe ingestion: users can experience nicotine without the tars and chemicals contained in cigarettes that are widely known to cause cancer, heart disease, and dozens of other lethal bodily afflictions.

While we and the rest of the vape industry applaud the American Heart Association for retracting this unfair and unreliable research, we remain confident and excited for future studies to bring forth accurate information regarding the safety of vape usage in comparison to traditional cigarettes.

“Retraction to: Electronic Cigarette Use and Myocardial Infarction Among Adults in the US Population Assessment of Tobacco and Health.” Journal of the American Heart Association, vol. 9, no. 4, 18 Feb. 2020, 10.1161/jaha.119.014519. Accessed 23 Feb. 2020.