The HCSP concludes that the e-cigarette can be considered as an aid to smoking cessation but wishes to exclude its use in all public places.
Following the publication by Public Health England (August 2015) of a report rather favorable to the electronic cigarette, certain French health professionals as well as an association of e-cigarette users have in the media requested its integration as a ‘cessation and risk reduction tool within the National Tobacco Control Program.
The General Directorate of Health (DGS) and the Interministerial Mission for the Fight against Drugs and Addictive Behaviors (Mildeca) then jointly referred the matter to the High Council for Public Health (HCSP) on October 21, 2015, asking it to update its opinion of 25 April 2014. This was made public this wednesday.
Great caution of the High Council
It emerges from the work of the HCSP that the electronic cigarette can be considered as “an aid to stop or reduce the consumption of tobacco by smokers”.
But as Why actor wrote recently, the High Council remained in the end very cautious. By specifying, for example, that the e-cigarette “could constitute a gateway to smoking”.
According to these experts, the device also induces “a risk of renormalization of tobacco consumption given the positive image conveyed by its marketing and visibility in public spaces”.
Prohibition in public places recommended
However, despite this report which therefore blows hot and cold, the HCSP still takes a firm position. By now recommending “to inform, without advertising, health professionals and smokers that the electronic cigarette is an aid in stopping smoking”, but also “a mode of reducing the risks of tobacco in exclusive use “.
An aid from which vapers will not however be able to benefit in all circumstances since the HCSP asks, in parallel, to extend the ban on its use to all places assigned to collective use (cafes, restaurants, etc.).
While explaining that “The risks associated with passive vaping are zero or extremely limited for third parties”. He concludes as such that “this recommendation could inadvertently suggest, in the eyes of the general population, that vaping is comparable to tobacco”.
The e-cigarette “can be considered as an aid to stop or reduce the consumption of tobacco by smokers” but “could constitute a gateway into smoking”
Posted by Why doctor on Thursday, February 25, 2016
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