NEWS
Vapouround Investigates:
‘Vaping Causes Seizures’ Claim
FDA backtracks on vaping causes seizures claim as link was
drawn before an investigation had been completed.
By Gordon Stribling
On April 10, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) took the unprecedented step of
warning the public of a potential link between e-cigarettes and seizures before an investigation
had been completed. Just 35 cases had been reported over a 10-year period.
The inevitable media panic followed and for a brief period supplanted the ‘teen vaping epidemic’
narrative that had dominated news over the previous 18 months.
The FDA acknowledged that some of the seizures may have been triggered by an underlying
medical condition or use of other substances.
Gregory Conley, President of the American Vaping Association, said:
“While any and all potential risks should be investigated, this release by the FDA is incredibly
irresponsible. There is absolutely nothing to suggest that these seizures were caused by
vaping.
“With more than one percent of US adults suffering from epilepsy or seizures, it would
actually be highly unusual if zero consumers of a product used by millions of adults over
the last decade reported suffering a seizure.”
But while the FDA alerted the public of a potential seizure risk associated with e-cigarettes,
a number of FDA-approved nicotine-replacement drugs remain on the market despite their
seizure risk.
In 2015, the FDA announced that Pfizer’s nicotine-replacement drug Chantix would carry
a warning about a rare risk of seizures associated with the product. A medical literature
review found that the patients had no history of seizures or seizure disorders.
The warning was only issued after hundreds of cases had been investigated.
GlaxoSmithKline’s Zyban has a seizure rate of 1 in 1,000.
While the FDA’s aggressive targeting of the vaping industry suggests an institutional distrust of
the technology, two documents have revealed that the agency is looking to license vape-
based nicotine-replacement products that could compete with conventional e-cigarettes.
The documents set out a pathway for the development of novel nicotine-replacement products
18 | VM23