Storm clouds gather over vaping
Call for USA ban triggers new safety debate in Spain
SIX deaths and a mysterious outbreak of lung disease in the United States have sparked a new debate on the safety of vaping.
The e-cigarette has become a massive international market with the numbers of ‘vapers’ soaring across the world - from about seven million in 2011 to around 41 million last year - and tipped to reach 55 million by 2021.
It has also been seen as the future for the future of the tobacco industry, ready to offer the ‘reduced risk’ nicotine hit compared to more traditional smoking; the global market is now thought to be worth £15.5 billion. Five years ago it was £5.5 billion.
America, Britain and France are the biggest consumers of smokeless tobacco; the market is also growing quickly in Spain where 34% of the population admits to having a daily ciggie and demonstrated by the growth of specialist vaping shops.
Vaping involves inhaling a steam containing nicotine, water, solvents and flavours some loosely termed as ‘exotic’. Little is known of the long-term effects.
However, in the US, there have been 450 cases of a pneumonia-type illness across 33 states and six vapers have lost their lives. Doctors have linked these to e-cigarette use; the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention has advised until more is known the public should avoid vaping altogether.
The symptoms are reported as a severe pneumonia, shortness of breath, coughing, fever, fatigue and respiratory failure where the body cannot break down oxygen or produce carbon dioxide, or both.
Almost half of American vapers are in the 18 to 24-yearold group but there is also a surge in the numbers of school children taking up the habit, attracted by the sweet flavours on the market.
COMPLETE BAN
President Donald Trump announced last week his administration is looking to completely ban favoured e-cigarettes - the state of Michigan has already outlawed flavours.
And the president’s health secretary Alex Azar underlined data showing how a quarter of high school students had vaped in the past month as regulators warned of an underage “epidemic”. He added: “An entire generation of children risk becoming addicted to nicotine.”
Meanwhile, the Food and Drug Administration in the US has investigators trying to establish whether the spike in illnesses is caused by a particular toxin in vaping liquids including the oils in flavours.
Mr Trump said: “We want to get to the bottom of a very unusual situation. It (vaping) is so new and it has become so big, so fast.”
But it is claimed that in Europe there are much tighter controls on the ingredients used in vaping flavours.
In the UK, health experts said they were not aware of any similar health incidents as experienced across the Atlantic, saying products were strictly regulated.
Martin Doctrell, head of tobacco control at Public Health England, said: “A full investigation is not yet available but we’ve heard reports that most of these cases (in the United States) were linked to people using illicit vaping fluid bought on the streets or homemade; some containing cannabis products, like THC, or synthetic cannabinoids, like Spice.
“Unlike the US, all e-cigarette products in the UK are tightly regulated for quality and safety by the medicines and healthcare products regulatory agency and they operate a ‘yellow card scheme’; encouraging vapers to report any bad experiences.”
FRACTION OF THE RISK
And Public Health England continues to advise that using e-cigarettes carries “a fraction of the risk of smoking” and reminds vapers to use regulated liquids for their machines - and never use homemade or illicit ‘street’ liquids, or adding substances “which could be harmful”.
One independent review of vaping in the UK concluded the practice was 95% less harmful than smoking. It author, Professor Ann McNeill said: “E-cigarettes could be a game changer in public health.”
The World Health Organisation says there has been a steady decrease in the numbers of people around the world smoking - and acknowledges the role vaping can play in helping smoker kick the habit.
According to WHO, tobacco kills half of its consumers; more than eight million people every year, with 1.2 million of those being passive smokers - and it said in 2017, 3.3 million consumers and people exposed to secondhand smoke died of lung disease.
WHO maintains tobacco smoke contains over 4,000 chemical products, of which at least 250 were toxic and more than 50 could cause cancer.
And it has warned there are health concerns associated with vaping; pointing out the longterm effects remained unknown.
WHO has also warned the nicotine in the liquid vaporised in an e-cigarette was addictive; users replacing liquid in refillable e-cigarettes risk spilling the product on their skin, possibly leading to nicotine poisoning; and some of the sweeter flavours were irritants - potentially causing an inflammation of the airways.