An Annual Review of Public Health entitles ‘Harm Minimization and Tobacco Control: Reframing Societal Views of Nicotine Use to Rapidly Save Lives’ shows evidence that, if regulated and endorsed appropriately, the use of e-cigarettes could be monumental in reducing the number of smoking related deaths.
About The Review
The main focus of the review was to identify whether methods of harm minimisation in the fight against tobacco could feasibly reduce the loss of life associated with smoking related illness, and even eventually replace cigarettes altogether.
They have identified e-cigarettes as an effective alternative nicotine delivery systems (ANDS) which could help smokers make a healthier lifestyle choice that could prevent the onset of smoking related illness and disease in the future that continued smoking could have caused, therefore reducing the number of deaths associated with smoking.
The data indicates that if most of those currently smoking traditional combustible tobacco products switched to vaping, around 6.6 million deaths could be prevented over the preceding ten years, as making the switch could I some prevent the onset of smoking related diseases that would otherwise have resulted in a premature death.
The researchers reported that they only found the potential for negatives affects from e-cigarette use when the simulations measured represented completely unrealistic usage, the e-cigarette was being used in a way that a real cigarette user would never use it.
They also made the point that the small number of negatives associated with e-cigarettes, for example the small portion of e-cigarette uptake amongst youth, are vastly outweighed by the proposed benefits and the amount of good that e-cigarettes could do.
What Could This Mean For The Future?
It is important to recognise that while vaping amongst youths is an issue that needs to be closely monitored to ensure that numbers remain minimal, there are a number of ways in which we can work to prevent the uptake of e-cigarette use amongst underage people.
For example, here at Evapo we use the ‘Think 25’ initiative which requires staff to request to see ID for anyone who looks to be under the age of 25, failure to produce appropriate ID will result in a refusal of sale.
There are a number of initiatives that can help crack down on the number of underage e-cigarette users, however there are not many ways in which we can ensure that smokers can successfully kick their smoking habit.
A recent study found that smokers that use an e-cigarette as a smoking cessation device are 95% more likely to be successful in kicking the habit, statistics like this cannot be ignored if the dream of a smoke free future has any hope of being achieved.
Cigarettes have been a plague to societies all around the world for over 120 years, and e-cigarettes are the first innovation that truly has the potential to disrupt and maybe even completely eradicate the hold tobacco products have over our future, a potential that must be encouraged and endorsed if there is any hope of achieving the kind of life changing results that the data in the Annual Review of Public Health suggests could be possible.
If you are considering the use of an e-cigarette as a stop smoking aid, pop in to your local Evapo store and speak to a member of our team for advice and support, or contact your local stop smoking services. Head over to our blog to read more vaping related news, reviews and how to’s.
Sources:
https://www.annualreviews.org/doi/pdf/10.1146/annurev-publhealth-040617-013849
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/add.14656
