On Saturday night, Leonardo DiCaprio was obviously on cloud nine. His latest film, “The Revenant”, landed him the Screen Actors Guild Award for “Outstanding Performance By a Male Actor in a Leading Role”. As he was enjoying the evening of awards and recognition with Hollywood’s A-listers, he casually pulled out a small box mod and took a few puffs. Apparently, this was a major social faux pas and almost immediately, the American Lung Association was targeting him for setting a bad example by vaping.

The ALA sent out a quick tweet, using Leo’s on camera vape to push their message. “Spot someone vaping at the #SAGawards Sat. night? Learn more about health risks of #ecigs,” the tweet read. It also included a link to their webpage about vaping.

With a quick click on the link, it’s clear that the ALA is pretty clueless when it comes to vapor devices. In fact, the organization gets it wrong from the first sentence: “Electronic cigarettes, or e-cigarettes, are a popular new tobacco product that have still largely unknown public and individual health effects.” First things first, vapor devices are not tobacco products. That’s the whole point of vaping – to be tobacco-free and have an alternative to the cancer-causing carcinogens in traditional cigarettes.

Secondly, we know plenty about the public and individual health effects of vaping. There have been hundreds of studies conducted all over the world. For instance, this study from the UK’s National Health Service showed that vaping is 95 percent safer than smoking and could save 76,000 lives per year. Another study buried in the Tobacco Control Archives demonstrated that vapor contains 450 times less toxins than cigarette smoke. And we can’t forget this ground breaking study that showed inhaling vapor was no more dangerous than breathing in regular room air.

The rest of the ALA’s statements on vaping are a familiar run down of faulty studies that have been debunked over and over again. Yet is seems that the ALA is turning a blind eye to vaping research to protect their interests. If everyone quits smoking, then suddenly the American Lung Association isn’t all that important anymore.

Just take a look at their financial statements from 2015 and you will see that the association’s assets were over $38 million with contributions and public support reaching nearly $59 million last year. If you think all of that money goes to research, think again. In 2015, reports show over $6 million spent paying salaries and employee benefits for “program services”. Another $7.1 million was spent on salaries for “supporting services”.

Does the ALA have an ulterior motive in their anti-vape rhetoric? Well you do the math. In the meantime, Churnmag wants to say congrats to Leo both on his SAG award and his decision to diss tobacco and lead a smoke-free life.