Shepard Smith Hammers Vaping Lobbyist: Your Industry is Addicting ‘A Whole Generation of Kids’

After President Donald Trump announced his plan to ban all flavored vaping products, Fox News anchor Shepard Smith invited on a e-cigarette lobbyist to debate the dangers of inhaling nicotine vapor.

During the Wednesday segment, Tony Abboud, the executive director of the Vapor Technology Association, argued that vaping can be safer than smoking tobacco cigarettes, but the host aggressively pushed back on the claim.

“Actually that’s not true, because I have a Google machine and access to the research … there are no long-term studies to back up claims that vapor from e-cigarette is less harmful than conventional smoke,” Smith challenged. “So why do you push that line?”

“American Lung Association says, ‘E-cigarette’s are not safe and can cause irreversible lung damage and lung disease.’ That’s what they say,” he added.

Abboud brought up several studies which suggest smoking is less safe than vaping, while also noting that the American Cancer Society has not made a definitive claim on the dangers of e-cigarettes.

“You’re trying to draw correlations — and the point is that even the FDA has looked at that significant harm reduction potential that e-cigarette’s have,” the pro-vape advocate argued.

Smith went on to argue that Abboud’s industry is addicting “a whole generation of kids” who are now “running around in schools all over the country … [vaping] in the bathroom, where the teachers can’t catch them, they are getting addicted to nicotine.”

“Do you have a problem being in an industry that addicts children to nicotine?” the anchor pressed, before asking why his guest opposes Trump’s ban of flavored e-cig products.

Abboud insisted that there will be a “return to smoking” if “the only flavor on the market is tobacco,” which Smith conceded is a fair point, but he continued hammering his guest: “Now a bunch of kids are addicted to vaping. It is unfortunate that the kids have gotten addicted to nicotine, isn’t it?”

During an impromptu presser in the Oval Office on Wednesday, Trump told reporters, “Not only is it a problem overall, but really specifically with respect for children. We may very well have to do something very, very strong about it.” He went on to call for a ban of “all non-tobacco flavored vaping products from the market.”

Watch above, via Fox News.