Smoking risks due to combustion – expert

CALIFORNIA: A smoking cessation expert said the combustion or burning process is what causes disease and death from smoking.

“Practically all risks to health from smoking are due to combustion products that are released from burning tobacco,” said Peter Hajek, professor of clinical psychology and director of the Wolfson Institute of Preventive Medicine’s Tobacco Dependence Research Unit at Queen Mary University of London.

Hajek made the statement to clear the confusion among authorities in many countries over the difference between smoking and nicotine consumption.

Numerous studies have shown that it is the tar and carcinogens found in tobacco smoke that cause the death and disease associated with smoking, and not nicotine.

Prof. Hajek said that by removing the element of combustion from nicotine consumption, health risks will be significantly reduced. He said this is possible by using products such as e-cigarettes or Swedish snus.

“E- cigarettes are expected to pose less than 5 percent of risks of smoking, and with snus, the risks are even smaller,” he said. Various scientific studies have confirmed that these smoke- free nicotine products are significantly less harmful than traditional cigarettes.

Public Health England issued a report in 2015 stating that ecigarettes are at least 95-percent less harmful to humans than combustible tobacco.

Innovations such as e-cigarettes and snus do not burn tobacco and so do not produce smoke and tar. The professor pointed out that pharmaceutical nicotine is not addictive.

“People do not get hooked on nicotine gum or patches. But while nicotine on its own seems unattractive to non-smokers, it can be rewarding to smokers who are already habituated to it. In this way, such products help smokers quit,” he said.

Prof. Hajek said the problem with smoking is not nicotine, but the smoke that causes cancer, heart disease and lung disease.

Prof. Hajek said to reduce the health risks from smoking, authorities in other countries should encourage smokers to switch to less harmful, smoke-free nicotine products such as e-cigarettes and snus.

A February 2019 clinical trial by UK’s National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) found that ecigarette was twice as effective as nicotine replacement treatments such as patches and gum at helping smokers quit.

Prof. Hajek said questions about the safety of e-cigarettes emerged last year withacute lung injuries reported among users of e-cigarettes in the USA. This, however, turned out to be due to contaminants in illegal marijuana products, and not related to nicotine vaping.