Analysis of state portrayals of the risks of e-cigarette use and the cause of the EVALI outbreak

INTRODUCTION: In August 2019, an outbreak of “e-cigarette or vaping product use-associated lung injury” (EVALI) prompted many states and health organizations to warn against the use of electronic cigarettes, or e-cigarettes, due to the presumed link between e-cigarette use and the illness. However, it was later shown that vitamin E acetate, a component of some illicit vaporizable THC products, was the causative agent in this outbreak. METHODS: We conducted a series of cross-sectional surveys of the websites of all state departments of health to determine how they communicated the risk of e-cigarette use during and after the EVALI outbreak. We then paired this analysis with data from the 2016 through 2020 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System to measure changes in cigarette and e-cigarette use. RESULTS: Website data from 24 states was available for analysis at all three time points of interest, and BRFSS data was only available for 8 of these states. We found that by January 2020, a majority of the states surveyed did not list vaporizable THC use as a cause of EVALI; however, differences in state messaging did not appear to be associated with changes in e-cigarette and cigarette use. CONCLUSIONS: Given the number of states that did not appear to update their messaging regarding the cause of EVALI, we believe that states should re-evaluate this messaging to accurately communicate the risks of e-cigarette use. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12954-022-00694-6.