In a report presented on July 26, the World Health Organization considers that electronic cigarettes are “unquestionably harmful” and calls for a regulation of their marketing.
Vaping to replace cigarettes or even to quit smoking? For the World Health Organization (WHO), this is not a good idea.
In a report presented Friday, July 26 in Rio de Janeiro (Brazil), the institution dependent on the UN indeed judges that the e-cigarette is far from being a healthy alternative to tobacco by considering it as “unquestionably harmful”.
While the WHO recognizes that vaping exposes users to fewer toxic substances than those who smoke combustible cigarettes, it says these e-cigarettes also pose “health risks”. She therefore advises against these devices for those seeking to quit smoking.
Disinformation, a “current and real threat”
If studies on the harmful effects of electronic cigarettes on health follow each other without reaching the same conclusions, the WHO has decided. According to her, the electronic cigarette is the subject of many fake news carried by the tobacco industry. These disinformation campaigns would constitute a “current and real threat”.
However, recognizes the WHO, the available evidence on the harmfulness of electronic cigarettes “is not conclusive”. “Although the level of risk associated with Seans (electronic nicotine delivery system) has not been conclusively measured, Seans are unquestionably harmful and will therefore have to be regulated”, judges the World Health Organization.
Already, on May 31, on the occasion of World No Tobacco Day, the WHO called for greater caution in the use of electronic cigarettes and warned against the often contradictory information about them.
“The electronic cigarette could be less dangerous than tobacco, then explained doctor Vinayak Prasad, director of the department of non-communicable diseases at the WHO, to RFI. But we do not really know to what extent (…) I compare that a fall: instead of falling from the 7th floor with the normal cigarette, you fall from the 3rd floor with the electronic cigarette. The question is: are you going to survive that much?”
Several studies have thus pointed to the harmful consequences of electronic cigarettes on health. One concluded that certain flavors increase the risk of cardiovascular disease, while another claims that vaping causes lung inflammation similar to that produced by tobacco.
No evidence of its effectiveness in quitting smoking
Finally, believes the WHO in its report, there is currently not enough evidence that vaping is effective in quitting smoking. “In most countries where they are available, users (of e-cigarettes) generally continue to smoke combustible cigarettes at the same time, which has very little or no positive impact” on reducing health risks, concludes the international health agency.
On this subject, studies also diverge. Last February, a study published in the journal JAMA concluded that “e-cigarette use is associated with an increased risk of initiation and use of conventional cigarettes, particularly among low-risk youth”. Conversely, a study by the British Office for National Statistics (ONS) stated in 2014 that e-cigarettes are consumed almost exclusively by smokers and former smokers.
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