E-cigarettes are safer than smoking but not without risks, concludes toxicity review

Electronic cigarettes are significantly less harmful than smoking but are not risk-free, a report from the Committee on Toxicity of Chemicals in Food, Consumer Products, and the Environment (COT) has concluded.1

COT, which is made up of independent experts, was commissioned to produce a report by the Department of Health and Social Care and Public Health England to review electronic nicotine delivery systems and devices that use an e-liquid that does not contain any nicotine.

In 2015 a review commissioned by Public Health England, which concluded that e-cigarettes were 95% less harmful than tobacco, led to widespread criticism with many questioning the evidence and the authors’ conflicts of interest.234 The COT report did not give any overall …