Learning From LGBTQIA+ Young Adults

Learning From LGBTQIA+ Young Adults

Over the summer we produced a science communication report for a study investigating tobacco use among LGBTQIA+ young adults that we’re currently wrapping up. The study, funded by the Tobacco-Related Disease Research Program (TRDRP) of the University of California, continues our research interest in understanding tobacco-related inequities for LGBTQIA+ young adults. Building upon a study we conducted previously (funded by the National Cancer Institute), this study comprises 100 qualitative interviews that we conducted with LGBTQIA+ young adults to examine their perceptions of tobacco harm reduction.

"UM, DID YOU JUST SAY TOBACCO HARM REDUCTION?" I did.

Let me explain.

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Truth-telling, trust and e-cigarettes

Truth-telling, trust and e-cigarettes

Headshot of Dana Scully from The X-Files, with caption "MULDER, THE TRUTH IS OUT THERE, BUT SO ARE LIES."

Lange, M. (1994, February 11). The X-Files. Young at Heart. 20th Century Fox Television.

It should go without saying that public health institutions and researchers have an obligation to tell the truth. In principle, there aren’t many stakeholders in e-cigarette research who would argue otherwise. But questions about whose truth and how information about e-cigarettes should be communicated have been highly controversial.

Partly this is because e-cigarettes haven’t been around long (relatively speaking), and research takes time.

But while influential figures on all sides of the e-cigarette debate in the US have increasingly acknowledged a body of evidence that vaping is less harmful than combustible cigarettes, the US public has increasingly come to believe the opposite. It’s unlikely that this outcome results from even-handed cautions against jumping to conclusions. People have been inundated with a particular message about the current state of research on vaping, and that message is false. Continue reading →