Throughout our lives we are told about the effects of smoking, how bad it is to hour health including increased cancer risk, and yet many still do it. Upon reading my NewScientist, I was drawn to one particular article on electronic cigarettes I have a particular interest in such due to family members using them on-and-off in a desperate attempt to quit for good. However, are they really any help, or just a menace? Some people think that the wide use of e-cigarettes could save many lives, the number of people using them in the UK is thought to reach a million this year (Acting on Smoking and Health, charity, claimed 700 000 people were using them last year); but some people believe that they are doing harm in normalizing smoking.
These 'cigarettes' vaporise solution (including propylene glycol and vegetable glycerine) into aerosol mist, which simulates the act of smoking. They contain nicotine, just like normal cigarettes- which might be around the same amount of a normal one, but the quantity of nicotine can be chosen by the user, with some opting for none at all. The huge attraction for smokers the these devices is that they look and feel just like the real thing- unlike nicotine patches or gum. They are, however, more pleasant for non-smokers around the people using the e-cigarettes as opposed to real ones; they do not produce toxic gas or smell. A 2012 study showed that carcinogens were typically 1000 higher in smoke from standard cigarettes compared to the vapour from electronic ones.
There is uncertainty around the effects of inhaling of nicotine vapour into the lungs; but there are no combustion products to be inhaled, so no tobacco toxins inhaled which could cause lung disease and cancer.
Are e-cigarettes medicines, or simply a form of cigarette to be on general sale? There is a great disparity when it comes to the view of this across countries, for example in Canada and Australia they are not on shop shelves and people can only buy them on-line for their personal use; whereas, in the US e-cigarettes are classifies as tobacco products so they can be sold legally as consumer products. In the next few months, UK regulators could 'provide a model for which way to go'- the MHRA (Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency) proposed regulating them as medicines- but would allow them to be continued in retail sale, so that smokers who have already turned to them do not go back to smoking.
Smoking is the world's second biggest avoidable killer (following high blood pressure)- killing 6 million a year. 35% of smokers try to quit each year in the UK, but only around 5% succeed unaided. From a study of of 300 smokers for evidence for whether e-cigarettes help people stop smoking, 9 % quit and a further 20-25% cut intake of real cigarettes by at least half. But how safe are these e-cigarettes? The WHO in 2008 warned that the safety of e-cigarettes had yet to be established.
Action on Smoking and Health (a UK anti-smoking charity) said the use of electronic cigarettes was a 'harm reduction' approach. But they can legally be sold to children, and there are few advertising restrictions- could they be seen as glamorising smoking? They are not regulated medicines like patches or gum, so there are no rules about the purity of nicotine in them. Should the smoking of e-cigarettes be allowed in a public place? The BMA has called for a ban for their use in public places, so there is smaller risk of normalising something that looks like smoking.
How will the regulation change? We can only wait and see...
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