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E-cigarettes are safer than smoking but not without risks, concludes toxicity review
Electronic cigarettes are significantly less harmful than smoking but are not risk-free, a report from the Committee on Toxicity of Chemicals in Food, Consumer Products, and the Environment (COT) has concluded. COT, which is made up of independent experts, was commissioned to produce a report by the Department of Health and Social Care and Public Health England (PHE) to review electronic nicotine delivery systems and devices that use an e-liquid that does not contain any nicotine. The COT report did not give any overall figure for the harm from e-cigarettes comparable to PHE's 95% less harmful figure. It said that the possible adverse health effects from the long term use of e-cigarettes were still unknown and that there were many areas that lack data.
If current smokers switched completely to e-cigarettes, harm to health would be reduced, although some risks would be reduced more than others, the report said—for example, a “considerable reduction in risk of lung cancer would be anticipated due to lower exposure to tobacco related carcinogens.” But it warned that the reduction in risk would be much lower for, for example, asthma symptoms. The health risk to bystanders from vaping is low in most situations, the report concluded.
The report said that e-cigarette users who did not already use tobacco products were at risk of “some adverse health effects” and of developing nicotine addiction. It pointed out that people who take up e-cigarettes might otherwise have taken up cigarette smoking but also that people might progress from e-cigarettes to cigarette smoking. The committee noted that people who used nicotine delivery systems while continuing to smoke cigarettes could be exposed to more nicotine than smoking only, but only limited information is available on such “dual use.”
The report said that the possible health risk of inhaling flavouring ingredients used in e-liquids was “an area of uncertainty” as there was little available information on whether these chemicals can damage human health when heated and inhaled. Another area of concern is potential contaminants and impurities including metal particles, which might leach into e-liquids from the devices and silicates. The report noted that the breakdown of e-liquid contents can result in the formation of formaldehyde, although the extent to which this would occur during normal use of e-cigarettes has not been established.
Alan Boobis, chair of COT, said: “Our assessment on e-cigarettes largely reinforces the scientific consensus to date on their relative safety, that while not without risk they are significantly less harmful than smoking.”
Dr Nick Hopkinson, reader in respiratory medicine at Imperial College London, commented: “Most people who vape are either smokers trying to quit or ex-smokers. Smokers who switch completely to vaping will get a substantial health benefit. However, no serious authority suggests that vaping is completely harmless, so people should try to quit vaping too if they can in the long-term, though not at the expense of going back to smoking.”
Source: BMJ Open, 10 September 2020
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The percentage of e-cigarette users among high school students in the United States has declined to about 20% in 2020 from 27.5% last year, researchers from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in its Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report on Wednesday 9th September.
A survey of US middle school and high school students during January to March found that 3.6 million students still used the devices and more than 8 in 10 reportedly used flavoured e-cigarettes.
Consistent with 2019, prefilled pods or cartridges were the most commonly used device type in 2020, the report noted, adding that the use of disposable e-cigarettes had increased among both high school and middle school students. They most commonly used fruit-flavoured e-cigarettes in 2020, with other popular choices being candy, desserts, mint and menthol, the agency said. About 5% of high school students who used any type of flavoured e-cigarettes used mint flavour, according to the report.
Source: Reuters, 9 September 2020
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PQ: Tobacco: Public health reorganisation
Asked by Dr Dan Poulter, Central Suffolk and North Ipswich
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what his plans are for public health tobacco smoking policies and strategies following the merger of Public Health England with NHS Test and Trace and the Joint Biosecurity Centre.
Answered by Jo Churchill, The Parliamentary Under-Secretary for Health and Social Care
The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.
Source: Hansard, 9 September 2020
https://questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-questions/detail/2020-09-04/85005
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