E-CIGS - RESEARCH
https://www.bhf.org.uk/heart-matters-magazine/news/e-cigarettes
“More cancer-causing chemicals found in e-cigarettes”, “Vaping IS a gateway to smoking”, “Belfast woman’s electronic cigarette ‘bursts into flames’”. There are plenty of scare stories about e-cigarettes, but are they really a dangerous trend, or a useful way to quit smoking?
Recent independent studies from PHE (Public Health England) show that most of the chemicals causing smoking related disease are absent in e-cigarettes, and chemicals that are present pose little danger.
Martin said: “For the main carcinogen in tobacco smoke, levels in e-cigarette users were close to that of non-smokers.”
But a small study, published in August 2016, suggested that smoking e-cigarettes for 30 minutes can cause arteries to stiffen, in a similar way to tobacco cigarettes, suggesting more research is needed into their long-term safety.
Martin Dockrell, Tobacco Control Programme Lead at PHE, said: “We know that e-cigarettes are probably not completely safe, but that’s not the issue. The question is, are e-cigarettes safer than the alternative? And, for almost all e-cigarette users the alternative is smoking, and it's really important that they understand how much safer e-cigarettes are, compared to smoking".
Early studies looking into this showed that e-cigarette liquids, and the vapour they produce, don’t contain the same level of most toxic chemicals as tobacco cigarettes. In fact, these levels have been found to be so low that Public Health England and the Royal College of Physicians estimate that e-cigarettes are ‘around 95% safer than smoking’.
But the key finding came when the team looked in the samples at the levels of potentially toxic chemicals. They found that there was a remarkable difference in the levels of these substances between the different groups. In fact one chemical, called NNAL (known to cause lung cancer), was 97% lower in e-cigarette users compared to smokers.
Not only did e-cigarette users have lower levels of these substances compared to smokers, but they were also found to have very similar levels to people using NRT – something that Shahab is quick to point out is known to be relatively safe.
“We have 3 decades of research into the safety of NRT, and we’ve not picked up any significant long-term health issues,” he says.
Unfortunately, we’re not 100% convinced yet. There are a number of points left to uncover that this study hasn’t yet answered.
The first is that people who used e-cigarettes while still smoking didn’t reduce the levels of toxic chemicals they were exposed to. And a large number of e-cigarette users do still smoke.
“The full benefit of using e-cigarettes is from completely stopping smoking,” says Shahab.
“Any health benefits come from dramatic reductions in these chemicals, and we’re not seeing this in people that use both e-cigarettes and combustible cigarettes.”
This study confirms that e-cigarettes are far safer than smoking. If you’re a smoker, the best thing you can do for your health is to stop. And the most effective way to do so is through free Stop Smoking Services.
But this doesn’t mean that e-cigarettes are entirely without harm. If you’re a non-smoker, it’s not advisable to start vaping. We can’t yet be certain of all the long-term effects across all devices and liquids, so it’s best not to pick up the habit.
Study supporting e-cig safety and the effect it has on lowering carcinogens.