British MPs have finally launched an inquiry into the safety of vaping e-cigarettes, belatedly tackling the shortage of research on the subject when the number of UK vapers has already quadrupled over the past five years to 2.9m people.
Norman Lamb, the Liberal Democrat MP who chairs the House of Commons science and technology committee, said a broader study was needed to tie together the snippets of research that has been conducted.
“They are seen by some as valuable tools that will reduce the number of people smoking ‘conventional’ cigarettes, and seen by others as ‘re-normalising’ smoking for the younger generation,” he said.
“We want to understand where the gaps are in the evidence base, the impact of the regulations, and the implications of this growing industry on NHS costs and the UK’s public finances.”
Some advocates have called for e-cigarettes to be prescribed on the NHS but there has been little government action because of official uncertainty about whether they should be treated as a good or bad influence on public health. The new review comes after this year’s Government-backed “Stoptober” stop-smoking campaign prominently encouraged the use of vaping to help people get off cigarettes.
“E-cigarettes are particularly effective when combined with support from local stop smoking services – people who choose this route have some of the highest quitting success rates,” it said in its pamphlets. “E-cigarettes aren’t currently available on NHS prescription but they can be bought in vape shops, pharmacies and other retail outlets.”
Safer than Smoking
Health experts have finally given some weight to that argument with a University College London study of 181 current and former smokers finding that those who replaced cigarettes with vaping had significantly fewer toxins and cancer-causing carcinogens in their bodies than the smokers.
Dr Lion Shahab, an expert in epidemiology and public health at UCL who was lead author of the publication, said the study “adds to existing evidence showing that e-cigarettes and Nicotine Replacement Therapy are far safer than smoking, and suggests that there is a very low risk associated with their long-term use.”
Another frequent concern about e-cigarettes, the fear that they could be delivering high amounts of nicotine, was also disproved. “Our results also suggest that e-cigarettes are not only safer, the amount of nicotine they provide is not noticeably different to conventional cigarettes. This can help people to stop smoking altogether by dealing with their cravings in a safer way,” said Shahab.
But there is still come conflicting research, with researchers from the University of North Carolina this week finding that vapers showed high levels of a protein linked to potentially serious lung conditions such as cystic fibrosis along with lupus and psoriasis.
Not Prescribed
New draft guidance from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence does not recommend quitting smoking by using e-cigarettes and instead says patients should only be told that some smokers have found them helpful when they want to give up. The draft said patients should be told that there “is currently little evidence on the long-term benefits or harms of these products”.
The committee of MPs will take written submissions until December 8 on the health, regulatory and financial implications of e-cigarettes. While the health implications will be centred on the relative safety of vaping compared to cigarettes the focus on regulation will look at advertising, marketing and safety. The UK’s regulatory stance will be compared to the EU’s and the committee will consider how Brexit could affect that. The financial implications for the UK’s e-cigarette industry will also be considered as well as the economic effects on the NHS.
by Stewart Vickers
The post NHS: MPs Launch Overdue Vaping Review appeared first on Felix Magazine.
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