Electronic Cigarettes and Vaping is a HOT TOPIC

Electronic Cigarettes and Vaping is a HOT TOPIC

Off the back of the recent World Health Organisation (WHO) recommendations to ban vaping indoors, suddenly e-cigs and vaping have become very hot topics in the media.

Of course Exhale has been championing the electronic cigarette for years now. It's our business. We made it our business and feel that vaping has the potential to reduce harm and save lives.

However, you may ask then, how many lives?

Moreover, is there any actual evidence to back up any of these claims?

Well yes. There has been recent research carried out at University College London (UCL) whose study concluded in an estimation that for every 1 million smokers who make the switch, over 6,000 premature deaths would be prevented each year in the UK. Six Thousand.

Let’s look at those figures. There are currently 9 MILLION smokers in Britain. So if we use their same figures it calculates that 54,000 people could, potentially be ‘saved.' Staggering figures I’m sure you’ll agree.

Whilst there are already 2 million of us vaping, more and more people are deciding for themselves to 'give it a go'. Having done that, most find vaping really suits them, that it fits with their current lives, and furthermore, that it improves their lives. Now they fit in in many more places that, as smokers, they were banned from (whilst they smoked).

All people who urge for more research, regardless of which side of the fence they sit on, are absolutely right to do so. We cannot be more pleased. We need this research.

Interestingly, so far none of the research we have looked at has given us cause to believe that this product does not cause less harm than smoking. The figures we just talked about in fact, took into account in their findings, the possibility that e-cigarettes themselves may carry increased risk of death that we are currently unaware of.

As with everything, there are contradicting views. Studies can be biased toward one outcome or another. It's no wonder we sometimes feel a little anxious and don't know whom to believe!

We get afraid when we read headlines written to startle us and grab our attention. Many of these big, bad headlines followed a recent study carried out in America’s University of South Carolina. Their study found higher levels of some harmful and dangerous toxins compared to normal tobacco cigarettes.

Their findings were that e-cig vapour has traces of chromium and four times the amount of nickel than is present in tobacco smoke.

Their study also found traces of lead, zinc and other toxic metals. These ARE found in traditional cigarettes in much, much higher doses.

Of course, these studies with more negative results make us stop and think. We need to know that by vaping we are not doing ourselves more harm than we would if we continued to smoke.

We need to know if we are safeguarding our health.

To be absolutely sure, we should give up smoking completely.

We should eat healthily, regularly exercise, smile and be happy.

If you can do all of that, great.

Not vaping is entirely a better option, and doing all of those things would give zero risk. But, for those who tried and failed, many times over and have found vaping works as an alternative, we really want to know we are minimising risk to ourselves or others.

Professor Robert West and Dr. Jamie Brown from the Department of Epidemiology and Public Health at UCL published an editorial recently in the British Journal of General Practice which perhaps helps us to give balance to that partialy damning report. They arguing that “even though some toxins are present in the vapour from e-cigarettes, the concentrations are ‘very low.'

How low? Well, so low in fact, that they are "almost below 1/20th of that in cigarette smoke".

Their article concludes that “The vapour (in electronic cigarettes/vaping) contains nothing like the concentrations of carcinogens and toxins as cigarette smoke'.

The WHO recommendation which brought all this into the spotlight, states

“the use of e-cigarettes should be banned indoors, and all advertising stopped until the industry produces ‘convincing supporting scientific evidence and obtains regulatory approval”.

The British Medical Association (BMA) have backed this call.

Much weight in their argument against electronic cigarette use is given to the possibility that vaping might be a gateway to smoking for the young. However, all studies carried out thus far, have found that this is NOT the case.

The WHO wants us to believe that the rise in the numbers of vapers is not linked to the lowering of figures of those who smoke. How can that be?

Professor West and Dr. Brown of UCL link the rise in electronic cigarette use as “being accompanied by an increase in the numbers of smokers quitting”, and that “there is a continued fall in the numbers of people that smoke”.

Who is telling us the truth?

Professor West and Dr. Brown write, “There are a number of public health advocates who appear to consider electronic cigarettes primarily as a threat to public health, and bodies such as the British Medical Association and the WHO are warning smokers about their potential dangers.”

Professor Peter Hajek, Queen Mary University of London Tobacco Dependence Research Unit says ’'I think these types of recommendation are actually detrimental to public health” and he goes on to say “The purpose of the recommendations to restrict the use of e-cigarettes and the reason for doing that is to avoid risk.'

He says that 'any responsible regulator proposing restricting regulation, has to balance reducing risks, with reducing potential benefits, and in this case the risks are unlikely; some already proven not to exist; while the benefits are potentially enormous”.

He, like many others, believe that the electronic cigarette “could be a revolutionary intervention in public health if smokers switched”.

“Killing benefits, which are huge, for risks that are small is like asking (people) to stop using mobile phones and tablets, or restrict their use and further development, because of a one in ten million chance that the battery might overheat in your device.’

We will, as always keep careful watch on all research, all news and all regulations in order to make sure that the products we bring to you are the best. We sell responsibly and never, ever to anyone below the age of 18.

If you have any comments or questions you can contact us at support@exhalecigarette.co.uk