Lost in the cloud: How vaping was undermined by a moral panic
September 01, 2026 by substack.com
Lost in the cloud: How vaping was undermined by a moral panic
Vaping was not undermined by evidence alone, but by the story built around it. Moral panic, media pressure and political caution turned a lower-risk alternative for smokers into a cultural threat that became easier to condemn than to understand. That distortion matters because fear can stop people from recognising the difference between smoke and vapour. Public health should resist panic long enough to keep the risk hierarchy clear.
