Vaping not necessarily safer
|Published
In an international review of available evidence, researchers found a paucity of robust scientific studies on e-cigarettes and their capacity to help people stop smoking, but said data so far pointed at likely benefits. In an international review of available evidence, researchers found a paucity of robust scientific studies on e-cigarettes and their capacity to help people stop smoking, but said data so far pointed at likely benefits.
E-cigarettes may be no safer than smoking tobacco, doctors have warned.
Tests on whether the devices are linked to cancer have produced ‘alarming’ results, with experts saying more research is urgently needed.
The findings appear to contradict repeated claims that e-cigarettes are the healthier alternative to tobacco.
An estimated 2.6million Britons use the battery-powered gadgets, which vaporise nicotine to provide a smoker’s high without exposure to the tar and other cancerous chemicals found in cigarettes.
They are due to be prescribed on the NHS in the new year and Public Health England has declared them to be 95 per cent safer than smoking.
In the US study, researchers blew vapour from two popular brands over human cells in a lab, including healthy ones of the type that line the mouth and lungs. This caused damage to the cells’ DNA that can be a step towards cancer. Repeated over time, the damage could lead to an ‘inevitable progression’ towards the disease, the journal Oral Oncology reports.
Dr Jessica Wang-Rodriguez, author of the research at the University of San Diego in California, said: ‘Our study strongly suggests electronic cigarettes are not as safe as their marketing makes them appear to the public. Based on the evidence to date, I believe they are no better than smoking regular cigarettes.’
Dr Wang-Rodriguez is not sure exactly what is causing the damage to the cells. But it is known that the process of vaporisation can produce formaldehyde and other cancer-causing chemicals.
It is already blamed for an incurable condition called ‘popcorn lung’ in which the organs become so scarred that a lung transplant can be the only option.
Dr Wang-Rodriguez said: ‘There have been many studies showing that nicotine can damage cells but we found that other variables can do damage as well.
‘It’s not that the nicotine is completely innocent in the mix but it looks like the amount of nicotine is not sufficient by itself to cause these changes. There must be other components in the e-cigarettes that are causing this damage.’ She cautioned that her tests were done on cells in the lab, rather than on living people. Despite this, she concluded: ‘E-cigs have gained traction not only among current smokers as a replacement or supplement to traditional cigarettes but also among non-smokers.With e-cig usage becoming increasingly prevalent, it is critical to comprehensively evaluate the safety and potency of these devices.’
Earlier this year, Public Health England said at least 76,000 lives could be saved annually if smokers went electronic. But it later emerged that the claim relied on a study partially conducted by scientists with links to the e-cigarette industry.
There is also concern that ‘vaping’ makes smoking appear glamorous to the young – and that once hooked on nicotine, they will move on to conventional cigarettes.
Martin Dockrell, head of tobacco control at Public Health England, said: ‘PHE has always been clear that e-cigarettes are not 100 per cent safe and we will carefully consider this new study. But our major world-leading review, published recently, found e-cigarettes carry a fraction of the risk of smoking. This is because the harmful chemicals found in tobacco smoke, including carcinogens, are either absent in e-cigarette vapour or, if present, are mostly at levels 100th to 1,000th of that found in tobacco smoke.’
© Daily Mail