A foremost scientific review of examination of e-cigarettes by UC San Francisco scientists has discovered that the claims of the industry related to the devices are unsubstantiated by the proof to date, counting claims that e-cigarettes aid smokers quit.
The review was the first comprehensive assessment of peer-reviewed published research into the relatively new phenomenon of electronic cigarettes.
Electronic or e-cigarettes are devices designed to mimic cigarettes. The metal tubes are given a design similar to real cigarettes and comprise of a cartridge filled with a nicotine-laced liquid that is vaporized by a battery-powered heating element. The nicotine vapor is inhaled by smokers when they draw on the device, identical as they would a regular cigarette.
In the marketing analysis of health and behavioral effects associated with the products, which are unregulated, the UC San Francisco scientists found that e-cigarette usage is allied with considerably lesser odds of quitting cigarettes. It was also found that while the data are still inadequate, e-cigarette emissions “are not merely ‘harmless water vapor,’ as is commonly claimed, and can act as a cause of indoor air pollution.
84 research studies on e-cigarettes and other related scientific materials were under scrutiny.
They demanded for a similar ban to the E-cigarettes as the normal tobacco cigarettes.
Vended by many big multinational tobacco and other companies, the devices are overly marketed in print, television and the Internet with messages similar to cigarette marketing in the 1950s and 1960s.
The ever- use of the device among youth in U.S. rose from 3.3 percent in 2011 to 6.8 percent the following year; in Korea, youth “ever use” of e-cigarettes rose from .5 percent in 2008 to 9.4 percent in 2011. “Ever use” means whether one has smoked the product even just once.
While most youth using e-cigarettes are dual users, about one third of teenage e-cigarette users have never smoked a conventional cigarette, indicating that some youth are beginning consuming the addictive drug nicotine with e-cigarettes.
“E-cigarettes do not burn or smolder the way conventional cigarettes do, so they do not emit side-stream smoke; however, bystanders are exposed to aerosol exhaled by the user,” said the authors. The authors are Neal Benowitz, MD, a UCSF professor of medicine and bioengineering and therapeutic sciences and chief of the division of clinical pharmacology at San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center; Rachel Grana, PhD, MPH, a postdoctoral fellow at the UCSF Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education (CTCRE);; and Stanton Glantz, PhD, professor of medicine at UCSF, director of the CTCRE and the American Legacy Foundation Distinguished Professor in Tobacco Control.
Toxins and nicotine have been measured in that aerosol, such as formaldehyde, acetaldehyde, acetic acid and other toxins emitted into the air, though at lower levels compared to conventional cigarette emissions.
While previous research established that e-cigarettes caused lower levels of plasma nicotine than conventional cigarettes, more recent research demonstrated that regular users can manage nicotine absorption analogous to that with conventional cigarettes.
The combined results of five population-based studies of smokers, established that smokers who used e-cigarettes were about a third less likely to quit smoking than those who did not use e-cigarettes. The scientists said their research illustrates the need for product regulation.
“While it is reasonable to assume that, if existing smokers switched completely from conventional cigarettes (with no other changes in use patterns) to e-cigarettes, there would be a lower disease burden caused by nicotine addiction, the evidence available at this time, although limited, points to high levels of dual use of e-cigarettes with conventional cigarettes, no proven cessation benefits, and rapidly increasing youth initiation with e-cigarettes,” the authors wrote.
“Furthermore, high rates of dual use may result in greater total public health burden and possibly increased individual risk if a smoker maintains an even low-level tobacco cigarette addiction for many years instead of quitting.”
UC San Francisco (UCSF), is celebrating its 150th anniversary and is a leading university devoted to promote health worldwide through advanced biomedical research, graduate-level education in the life sciences and health professions, and excellence in patient care.
The paper was published May 12, 2014 in the American Heart Association’s journal Circulation.
