The Great Vape Debate

Why I’m writing about e-cigarettes

Welcome to The Great Vape Debate. This publication on Medium will be a home for my writing about tobacco control issues, particularly those affecting electronic cigarettes. I’ve never smoked cigarettes or vaped with a Juul or a Puff Bar. During my years as a reporter covering business, I never wrote about the tobacco industry. So I’m mildly surprised to be engaged by the questions surrounding smoking and e-cigarettes. But engaged I am.

I came upon the debate about vaping while reporting on philanthropy, which I’ve been doing since 2015, regularly for The Chronicle of Philanthropy and occasionally for others, including The New York Times, Washington Post and Vox.

My thinking about philanthropy has been influenced by, among others, Stanford professor Rob Reich, who in his book, Just Giving, writes that the philanthropy of the rich is an exercise of power. Billionaire philanthropy, he argues, deserves to be met with scrutiny and not (as used to be the case and often still is) merely with gratitude.

With that in mind, after getting a tip at the end of last year, I began a deep dive into a campaign against electronic cigarettes funded by a $160-million, three-year grant from Bloomberg Philanthropies. I was surprised and troubled by what I learned.