Should doctors offer electronic cigarettes as a tool to quit smoking? The question comes up frequently and the debate is tough. Smoking cessation tool? Gateway to smoking? Several experts recently debated in "The BMJ" to answer this question.
YES ! DOCTORS MUST RECOMMEND IT!
The National Institute of Excellence in Health and Care (The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence) which advises doctors recently declared that the electronic cigarette is a useful tool to quit smoking. However, opinions differ and some experts believe that e-cigarettes could cause depression, do not facilitate smoking cessation and constitute a gateway to smoking among young people.
Yesterday, in the edition of " The BMJ ", Several experts debated on this essential question: Doctors must they recommend the electronic cigarette ?
Paul Aveyard, professor of behavioral medicine at the University of Oxford, and Deborah Arnott, chief executive of action against smoking, says smokers often seek advice from their doctors on how to use e-cigarettes. According to them, the answer is clearly " YES Because e-cigarettes can help smokers quit smoking.
Electronic cigarettes are as effective as nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) in quitting smoking, and many people choose electronic cigarettes over NRT. Electronic cigarettes are popular smoking cessation aids, leading to an increase in quit attempts and total cessation of smoking in England and the United States, they explain.
Some fear that tobacco addiction will carry over to e-cigarette use and create potentially harmful continuous vaping. But according to them " for most vapers, the uncertainty surrounding the potential harm is not at issue because e-cigarette use will be short-term. »
Some young people do experiment with electronic cigarettes, but very few young people who have never smoked use them more than once a week. In an era when e-cigarettes are popular, smoking among young people has fallen to record levels, so the risk of them taking up smoking must be low or even nonexistent.
Concerns have been raised about the tobacco industry's involvement in the electronic cigarette market, however, "evidence suggests e-cigarettes do not benefit the tobacco industry because smoking rates decrease».
« In the UK, e-cigarettes are part of a comprehensive anti-smoking strategy that protects public policy against the commercial interests of the tobacco industry. "British health policy"promotes vaping as an alternative to smoking and builds consensus within the public health community with the support of Cancer Research UK and other charities ...».
NO ! THE CURRENT PROMOTION OF VAPOTAGE IS IRRESPONSIBLE! 
However, specialists do not all agree on the subject. Indeed, for Kenneth Johnson, adjunct professor at the University of Ottawa, the answer is clearly " NOT "! In his opinion, recommending electronic cigarettes to quit smoking as it is currently being done is simply irresponsible.
E-cigarettes pose a serious risk to public health and new generations of young smokers, he adds. In a study conducted in 2016 among young Anglophones (from 11 to 18 years), users of electronic cigarettes were 12 times more likely to start smoking (52%) than users of electronic cigarettes.
« They [the tobacco companies] have a long history of aggressively using their economic and political power to gain profits at the expense of public health.“, He adds. " British American Tobacco has big plans to expand the recreational nicotine market with e-cigarettes, the optics of quitting or quitting is not part of the plan "
According to him, the overall effect of electronic cigarettes on smoking cessation is negative, high levels of vapers undermine risk reduction and the gateway effect to smoking among young people is a proven danger.
Source : Medicalxpress.com/
