1 Comment on a |etter urg|ng WnC to treat e|ectron|c c|garettes as tobacco products or med|c|nes: 1he |mportance of d|spass|onate presentat|on and |nterpretat|on of ev|dence lollowlng our leLLer Lo Lhe ulrecLor Ceneral of Lhe WPC of 26 May 20141 rofessor SLanLon ClanLz organlzed a leLLer ln response ('Lhe ClanLz leLLer')2. Whlle our leLLer concerned Lhe broader lssue of Lobacco harm reducLlon and prlnclples LhaL should govern Lhe pollcy approach Lo low rlsk alLernaLlves Lo smoklng, Lhe ClanLz leLLer aLLempLed a sclenLlflc crlLlque of e-clgareLLes (LC).8efore movlng Lo speclflcs, we would llke Lo sLress LhaL our polnLs abouL Lobacco harm reducLlon remaln valld and relevanL, and LhaL auLhors of Lhe leLLer Lo ur Chan sLand by Lhe prlnclples seL ouL ln Lhe LexL. We hope LhaL WPC and Lhe parLles Lo Lhe lC1C wlll respond accordlngly.As regards Lhe speclflcs, lL ls a maLLer of regreL LhaL Lhe ClanLz leLLer repeaLed examples of mlslnLerpreLaLlon of research daLa LhaL had been already crlLlclzed by a number of commenLaLors aL Lhe Llme of wrlLlng,3,4. We belleve LhaL researchers have a duLy Lo make every efforL Lo be ob[ecLlve ln presenLaLlon of evldence and LhaL sLudles clLed should be relevanL, properly lnLerpreLed and supporL Lhe concluslons drawn.ln Lhe followlng paragraphs we explaln why concluslons drawn ln Lhe ClanLz leLLer do noL follow from Lhe sLudles clLed. 1.Contrary to the |mpress|on g|ven, surveys have found that use of e-c|garettes by never smokers |s neg||g|b|e and smok|ng rates are dec||n|ng among youth 1he leLLer reporLs . toplJ qtowtb lo yootb e-clqotette ose, locloJloq Jlstotbloq totes omooq yootb wbo bove oevet smokeJ o clqotette". 1he CuC naLlonal 1obacco ?ouLh Survey (n?1S) was clLed ln supporL of Lhls sLaLemenL.3,6 ln facL, Lhe CuC sLaLes uotloq 2011-2012, omooq oll stoJeots lo qtoJes 6-12. cotteot e-clqotette ose locteoseJ ftom 1.1X to 2.1X (p