E-cigarettes 95% less harmful than tobacco

Teenagers who use e-cigarettes are more likely than others to later smoke cigarettes and use other tobacco products, The Associated Press reports. However we still have concerns about the impact on the population of e-cigarettes and support the need for better regulation and restrictions on advertising, particularly to young people. In this context, few scientists had thought innovatively and had invented this Electronic Cigarettes.

Smoking is still apparently the largest cause of preventable deaths in England, with 800,000 deaths every year. The association says that while the toxic substances in e-cigarettes are lower than those in cigarette smoke, non-smokers could be involuntarily exposed to nicotine in any confined space where e-cigarettes are used.

A woman exhales vapour from an e-cigarette outside the offices of British e-cigarette manufacturer Totally Wicked in Blackburn, northern England March 19, 2015.

Chief executive, Deborah Arnott, comments: “This timely statement from Public Health England should reassure health professionals, the media, and the public, particularly smokers, that the evidence is clear: electronic cigarettes are very much less harmful than smoking”. This context is often lost in the discussions around vaping, as some in the public health community see vaping as a positive alternative to smokers who are trying to quit traditional cigarettes.

“There has been a major trend recently towards the use of e-cigarettes, and they are now the number one quitting aid used by smokers”.

Practically all of the adults in Britain who are now using e-cigarettes are smokers who are using the devices to try to quit smoking, and only 2 percent of youths were regular users. “The problem is people increasingly think they are at least as harmful, and this may be keeping millions of smokers from quitting”, said Kevin Fenton, director of health and wellbeing at Public Health England, which conducted the research.

The Public Health Agency (PHA) has issued further advice on e-cigarettes to help people make informed decisions.

Bauld also said: “We recognize the potential benefits for e-cigarettes in helping large numbers of people move away from tobacco”.

The devices can “act as a route out of smoking for the country’s (UK) 8 million tobacco users” and that they could be integrated into stop smoking services.