According to a report by the Chief Medical Officer of the United States (General Surgeon) presented Thursday, electronic cigarettes popular with a growing number of adolescents and young adults pose a major danger to public health. Obviously, Gregory Conley, president of the AVA (American Vaping Association) was quick to respond to these unjustified attacks against vaping.
« AMERICANS MUST KNOW E-CIGARETTES ARE DANGEROUS FOR ADOLESCENTS«
« The consumption of electronic cigarettes has exploded in recent years, increasing 900% among high school students from 2011 to 2015“, Underlines in a preface to the report the Chief Physician, the Dr. Vivek Murthy. Citing statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the report says 16% of high school students used e-cigarettes in 2015, up from 13,4% the year before.
« All Americans must know that e-cigarettes are dangerous for teens and young adults“, He insists. " Any use of tobacco, including electronic cigarettes, is a health hazard, especially for young people“, Adds this health official considering that“ this report provides parents and teachers with facts on how these products may be harmful to young people's health"
The report points out that nicotine, which is highly addictive at any age, has lasting, especially toxic effects on the developing brain of young people. Although electronic cigarettes are less harmful than cigarettes 
The authors of this latest study also determined that aerosols produced by vaping can passively expose others to potentially hazardous chemicals.
These experts also noted that vaping was " strongly linked to the use of other tobacco products in adolescents and young adults". The Chief Physician's report also criticizes the aggressive advertising of the $ 3,5 billion e-cigarette industry, and urges strict regulation.
These campaigns are primarily aimed at young people and echo media tactics used decades ago by tobacco groups to encourage the public to smoke, the document laments, citing in particular the use of a range of flavors popular with young people. " These companies promote their e-cigarettes with television and radio commercials that use celebrities and sexual content to make their products glamorous“, For his part criticized in a message accompanying the report, the director of the CDC, the Dr. Tom Frieden.
FOR MICHAEL SIEGEL, « VAPING IS NOT A FORM OF TOBACCO USE«
However, the dangers of e-cigarette use are controversial, with some experts saying that concerns about the risk that vaping will lead to smoking of traditional cigarettes are not well founded.
Michael Siegel, an expert professor at the faculty of public health of Boston University, describes the report of the Surgeon General, in a note published on his site, estimating that " vaping is not a form of tobacco use Since there is no combustion. He also points to the fact that despite the explosion of vaping among young people, the number of conventional cigarette smokers is at an all-time low in the United States and has even fallen below 40 million for the first time since the statistics began. 50 years ago.
According to Dr. Siegel, the success of vaping, while it should be controlled among younger people, is helping to eradicate the culture of smoking, which is a good thing.
NUMEROUS SPECIALISTS AND ASSOCIATIONS MOUNT TO THE NECK!
Obviously, the world of vaping has not remained indifferent to such comments. For Gregory Conley, President of the American Vaping Association :
« This is just another politically motivated attack on an industry that helps people end smoking. The discussion of the risks and benefits of vaping products should focus on science, not moralizing platitudes. The chief medical officer of the United States is putting himself in a position of failure vis-à-vis the American people by releasing such a biased report. »
« It is unfortunate to see how President Obama has left the office, he allows his chief physician to turn a once esteemed office into a propaganda machine. It's time to clean up, from the FDA to the HHS to this dishonorable doctor. »
To Deborah Arnott, Managing Director of Action on Smoking & Health (ASH), the largest anti-smoking group in the UK:
« ASH is perplexed at the level of concern expressed by the General Surgeon regarding e-cigarettes. Young people in both the United States and the United Kingdom are experimenting with e-cigarettes, but this has never been associated with an increase in smoking, and it is this point which is not sufficiently detailed in the report. »
« Although nicotine is not completely harmless, it is important to remember that smoking is the killer. In the UK we have a regulatory system that restricts advertising and controls sales to young people. There is no evidence of regular use by non-smoking children and, like in the United States, smoking rates are falling, not increasing. »
Clive Bates, former executive director of ASH, he responds to this study on his blog:
« This report is a major failure on the part of the physician general and his CDC ghost writers. Examining the risks for adolescents without considering the benefits for adults has inevitably created a very one-sided relationship. Even with a focus on youth, he fails to recognize that for teens, vaping can be a way out of smoking. Regardless of how the transition from smoking to vape in young people and adults is being handled, the General Practitioner has almost missed everything that matters and in the end presents a fundamentally flawed report. »
« The Chief Medical Officer is proposing restrictive policies on e-cigarettes by highlighting supposed benefits for young people, but he ignores the likely detrimental consequences for smokers. it is unwise and amateurish to propose regulations from such a position without considering the harmful consequences that this may have. »
Source : Vaping.org / Boursorama.com
