The frequently cited claim that e-cigarettes are "95% less risky" or "95% less harmful" than combustible cigarettes is outdated, misleading and invalid -- and should no longer be made in discussions on the dangers of vaping, according to an editorial published today in the American Journal of Public Health by six leading experts on e-cigarettes and public health.

"The '95% safer' estimate is a 'factoid': unreliable information repeated so often that it becomes accepted as fact," wrote the authors, including Thomas Eissenberg, Ph.D., [...]