But the UK paper has confirmed what many tobacco researchers have that e-cigarettes are less harmful than traditional cigarettes, which release over 60 carcinogens through combustion.
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The study doesn’t prove that electronic cigarettes are a “gateway drug” but some doctors say it bolsters arguments that the devices need to be strictly regulated. Almost half of British people are unaware that e-cigarettes are far less harmful than tobacco products.
“Tobacco Free Futures welcomes the findings from the Public Health England evidence review, which sends a clear message to smokers that switching to e-cigarettes is a much safer alternative to smoking tobacco”.
Ash (Action on Smoking and Health) found no evidence that young people are being recruited to smoking through using e-cigarettes, despite a 6 per cent rise in the number of 11 to 18-year-olds who claim to have tried the vaporiser.
A further 22 percent of 12,055 over 18s surveyed revealed that they did not know the effects of e-cigarettes. This attitude was described as raising “concerns that increasing numbers of people think e-cigarettes are equally or more harmful than smoking”.
In the following six months leading up to the start of 10 grade, 25 percent of e-cigarette users had also used combustible tobacco products, compared with 9 percent of nonusers.
A new law is due to be introduced on 1 October that will ban under-18s from buying e-cigarettes.
His comments came as an independent review of e-cigarettes by Public Health England suggested public perceptions of vaping were wrong.
Adolescents may be especially susceptible to develop nicotine addiction after e-cigarette exposure because their brains are still developing and are particularly sensitive to nicotine, writes Dr. Nancy A. Rigotti of Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School in a corresponding editorial. It was also revealed through the study that the young people who used e-cigarette were current or previous smokers.
“Recreational e-cigarette use is becoming increasingly popular among teens who have never smoked tobacco”.
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The battery-powered devices, which simulate the feeling of smoking but with nicotine inhaled in a vapour, could be a “game changer in public health”, according to study co-author Professor Ann McNeill of King’s College London.
