Negative Study Rebuffed By Experts

Hong Xue, a professor with the Department of Health Administration and Policy at George Mason University, Fairfax, USA, has claimed that pregnant women who use electronic cigarettes are at risk of a miscarriage. British experts were quick to issue strong condemnation of the comments and criticised the poor quality of the study.

“The popularity of e-cigarette use among young adults is a growing concern. However, little is known about factors associated with e-cigarette use in pregnant women and birth outcomes,” said Hong Xue.

If he had written about anything else, it is likely nobody would have heard of this research – just like the hundreds of other pieces of vape research that are published and forgotten every week – but this was picked up by the online versions of some British newspapers.

Hong Xue did not meet or talk to any women; he used a database and “evaluated the influence of several factors on behavioural changes in e-cigarette use before and during pregnancy and assessed the association between e-cigarette use and subsequent birth outcomes among pregnant women”.

He concluded: “Pregnant women who vaped mint−/menthol-flavoured e-cigarettes during pregnancy showed elevated risk of experiencing foetal death than those who vaped other flavours. However, those who opted to quit vaping before pregnancy showed no differences in the likelihood of having a high-risk birth compared to non-users.”

Being a negative story about e-cigarettes, Hong Xue’s words were leapt on by media outlets.

Following publication, experts rounded on the story, branding the work “nonsense” and “irresponsible”.

Professor Michael Ussher is a behavioural medicine expert at St George’s University of London. Ussher studies vaping during pregnancy as part of his regular work, unlike Hong Xue.

The Professor commented: “This study is not designed in a way that can assess whether vaping in pregnancy is associated with adverse birth outcomes.”

Professor Lion Shahab has led multiple teams looking at various aspects of vaping. Based at University College London, the ecig expert has also conducted work for the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco.

Professor Shahab lambasted the work for failing to take into account any of a number of factors that could have led to a negative pregnancy outcome, adding, “this finding makes no sense whatsoever, suggesting this is an unreliable analysis and should not be trusted.”

Anti-smoking charity Action on Smoking and Health also joined in with the condemnation.

“Many women in the UK are successfully using vapes to avoid smoking in pregnancy. It is irresponsible to discourage them from doing so without clear evidence of harm given the known and very substantial risks to mother and baby from smoking in pregnancy,” added Deputy Chief Executive Hazel Cheeseman.

Professor Linda Bauld, who recently spoke out about protecting vaping for adults from news media-induced hysteria, is leading a team looking at the use of e-cigs for pregnant smokers and the interim results look to be very positive. Her team has found that vaping carries the equivalent risk of being a never smoker and did not negatively impact on birth outcomes.