E-cigs smokers better heed WHO warning
Electronic cigarettes are “undoubtedly harmful” and should be regulated, WHO said as it warned smokers against using vaping products to quit the habit.
Electronic cigarettes are “undoubtedly harmful” and should be regulated, the World Health Organization ( WHO) said Friday as it warned against the use of vaping products by smokers trying to quit their deadly habit.
The growing popularity of ecigarettes, battery-powered devices that enable users to inhale addictive nicotine liquids, has raised fears among policymakers worldwide of a new gateway addiction for young people.
While vaping exposes users to lower levels of toxins than smoking, the WHO said the devices still posed “health risks” to users.
“Although the specific level of risk associated with ENDS (electronic nicotine delivery systems) has not yet been conclusively estimated, ENDS are undoubtedly harmful and should therefore be subject to regulation,” the WHO said in a new report on the global smoking epidemic.
There was also “insufficient evidence” to support claims of their effectiveness in assisting smokers trying to quit conventional cigarettes, it said.
“In most countries where they are available, the majority of e-cigarette users continue to use e-cigarettes and cigarettes concurrently, which has little to no beneficial impact on health risk and effects,” the report said.
Big tobacco companies have been aggressively marketing ecigarette and heated tobacco products in recent years as they seek new customers.
They argue such products were far less dangerous than traditional cigarettes and could help some smokers completely switch to “safer” alternatives. But the WHO warned misinformation spread by the tobacco industry about e-cigarettes was “a present and real threat.”
As well as nicotine, ecigarettes also contained metallaced aerosols which Vinayak Prasad, who leads the WHO’s Tobacco Free Initiative, said “are known to damage the heart.”