The High Council of Public Health has just published a new notice concerning the recommendation of the electronic cigarette as a smoking cessation tool for ex-smokers. He believes that knowledge of the benefits and risks is not sufficient to date.
This is an update of the report “benefits-risks of electronic cigarettes for the general population”, dated February 2016, which placed it as an option to help stop smoking. Despite the unknowns it involves, it does not present any of the main disadvantages of cigarettes, namely thatit does not emit carbon monoxide or tarthe most harmful components of tobacco.
In addition, several studies attribute harmful effects to it. It has been mentioned that it may be responsible for erectile dysfunction, to create a “mental fog”, to have led to an epidemic of patients in the United States…
That doctors do not recommend it as a treatment
This is above all a precautionary measure for the HCSP. He recommends that doctors no longer prescribe the electronic cigarette as a weaning solution, for lack of sufficient hindsight, in particular about fine particles contained in the steam it releases. But it does not condemn the use of the vapoteuse in addition. “Health professionals who accompany a smoker in a process of smoking cessation, must use drug treatments or not, having proven their effectiveness”, specifies the report. It is therefore agum or even nicotine-based patches.
In conclusion, the HCSP recommends maintain the ban on sales to minors and that “measures be taken to ensure the effectiveness and monitoring of its application”.
Source : Opinion on the benefits and risks of electronic cigarettes, HCSP, January 4, 2022.
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