Health
How Healthy is the E-Cigarette?
The electronic cigarette, (or ecigarette) is a tobacco-free alternative to conventional smoking, which involves the inhalation and absorption of a large number of carcinogenic chemicals - the chemicals which frequently lead to terminal disease. It is legal to use indoor and out, and, subject to local permission, on trains, planes, in cars and office places.
The Tobacco Harm Reduction project, which is run by University of Alberta, says:
Using modern smokeless tobacco products can reduce the risks of tobacco use by over 95% compared to smoking.These products include moist snuff (which is sometimes called by its Swedish name, snus), chewing tobacco, and lozenges... Or try switching to electronic cigarettes which deliver a vaporized nicotine which looks and feels like smoke but does not actually involve any smoke, and thus avoids the terrible health effects of breathing smoke.
The electronic cigarette was introduced in 2004, and is now making it’s way around the world. In some places it is advertised as a way to give up smoking, but in fact there have not yet been a sufficient number of acceptable clinical trials to claim this as fact.
The latest Electronic Cigarette Trial has been completed by highly respected Dr. Murray Laugesson of Health New Zealand, who concludes that no more carcinogens were found in the electronic cigarettes than in conventional nicotine patches. He found the product to be much safer than the use of a conventional tobacco cigarette product.
The nicotine inhaled is over 98 per cent absorbed, and the mist dissipates within seconds, unlike smoke, and should therefore not be harmful to others.
Dr. David Burns of the University of California questions whether the nicotine is reaching the bloodstream – if it is then this should confirm that the electronic cigarette would be an effective aid to quitting smoking. Dr. Laugesson is now investigating this issue and the results will be published at the meeting of the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco in Dublin, in April of this year.
The WHO does not discount the possibility that the electronic cigarette could be useful as a smoking cessation aid. The only way to know is to test and at least this is now happening.
Essentially, the product delivers nicotine, which is the addictive substance required by the smoker without smoke, ash, tobacco or smell, thus protecting the bystander from passive smoking and its associated dangers. The user is not taking in tar or damaging smoke, and is also therefore also protecting himself from health damage.