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It is perfectly sensible to have a healthy skepticism about new products and technologies, particularly their long-term effects. Where real risks exist, it is important to identify them. But it makes little sense to focus on theoretical, minuscule or entirely bogus harms without acknowledging the serious, well-known harms caused by existing products, which these new innovations could mitigate.

The fact that we do not yet completely and unequivocally know the potential effects of a 20-year vaping habit should be outweighed by the fact we are all too familiar with the effects of a 20-year smoking habit. In this case, reducing the harms caused by the devil we know — the one with a wealth of scientific evidence showing that it’s a massive public health concern — should be the priority.

If anything, the history of aspartame research shows an abundance of scientific caution. After safety concerns were raised, its initial approval was withdrawn, pending further testing. As a result of this controversy, it has remained under close scientific scrutiny since it was reapproved. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) now says that aspartame is one of the most exhaustively studied substances in the human food supply.

Similarly, an extensive review by the European Food Safety Authority in response to public concerns confirmed that aspartame consumption at current levels is safe (one would have to consume 19 cans of diet soda a day to exceed the FDA’s recommended limits). Nonetheless, public misinformation continues to dissuade people from using it. Similarly, e-cigarettes are a new and promising technology for reducing the harms of a product the World Health Organization predicts will kill up to a billion people this century. Vaping electronic cigarettes is irrefutably safer than smoking regular cigarettes.