The prominence of e-cigarettes is a symptom of decades of failure to tackle smoking properly
BMJ 2019; 364 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.l647 (Published 14 February 2019) Cite this as: BMJ 2019;364:l647- Nicholas S Hopkinson, reader in respiratory medicine, medical director12
- 1National Heart and Lung Institute, Imperial College London, UK
- 2British Lung Foundation, UK
- n.hopkinson{at}ic.ac.uk
Follow Nick Hopkinson on Twitter @COPDdoc
The annual Public Health England SmokeFree Health Harms campaign, now in its seventh year, focuses on the toxins present in cigarette smoke and their harmful effects on the body. A novel feature this year is emphasis on the relative safety of e-cigarettes compared with smoking. A video shows sticky yellow black sludge appearing after a few packets of cigarettes are smoked through a simulator. The same noxious material is being deposited in the lungs of smokers and the shock value of the “jar of tar” is a familiar tool. By contrast, there is no such accumulation of tar from an equivalent quantity of e-cigarette vapour. The levels of carcinogens found in people who vape are much lower than those seen in smokers,12 data which underpin estimates that vaping is no more than 5% as harmful as smoking, and that completely switching from smoking to vaping is associated with substantial health benefits.3
There are now more than 3 million people in the UK who vape.4 …
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