Anne Borgne, addictologist doctor at the hospital center of Cornouaille, Former tobacco specialist, considers counterproductive, the conclusions of a recent report on the carcinogenic risks of electronic cigarettes. She sees it as one more strategy towards weaning.
A report by US researchers published by the New England Journal of Medicine is once again sowing doubt about the carcinogenic risk of e-cigarettes. How do you react ?
Another attack! Smokers hear that it is fifteen times more dangerous than cigarettes, so they continue to smoke. It makes me angry! Smokers, who are not always aware of how dangerous tobacco is, do not want to use something that they have not been told is safe. This is normal reaction, except that these studies published for two years do not show reality.
These researchers estimate that heating the liquid in e-cigarettes to 5 volts can produce 5 to 15 times more formaldehyde, a carcinogen, than conventional cigarettes ...
An electronic cigarette with a power of 5 volts is never used by vapers. They are looking for pleasure with that hot sensation in the throat. This vapor must also be sufficiently concentrated and hot for there to be this sensation. If there was this voltage it would give a burning sensation, an unbearable irritating vapor. Models producing this overheating have been discarded.
There are still some unknowns, right?
I am not saying that it is a completely safety product. I would not recommend someone who does not smoke to use the electronic cigarette. We are proposing something that allows smokers, who take a major risk to their health, to take something else to remove this major risk. It may remain a minor risk but we are in a logic of reducing the risks of respiratory failure, cardiovascular disorders ...
A good help with smoking cessation?
It is part of the support strategies towards weaning. There are therapeutic, medical, drug strategies (patches, tablets, gums, etc.) for nicotine substitution. There, it is a strategy which is not part of the official recommendations. Right now, I can't put it on a prescription, I can just advise or give an opinion. The real success is that smokers have taken it without going through the medical profession. Many people either quit smoking or take turns and therefore reduce their tobacco consumption. However, this reduction accelerates the decision to quit smoking. This is a plus because there is no harmless little smoking. The risk of cancer is much more related to duration than quantity.
The vagueness is it not maintained by the absence of recommendations and in-depth studies on the impact of the e-cigarette?
It evolved. Basically, the Haute Autorité de santé leaves us the responsibility of what we want to do and say. We do not recommend it but if the smoker wants to use it to quit smoking we cannot tell him not to. The studies don't exist, there is no money for research and no pharmaceutical lab is involved in this. The electronic cigarette market weighed 275 M € in France in 2013, that of tobacco more than 15.600 M € and that of drug substitutes around 100 M €, in tumble… We do not know what formaldehyde will produce in the body. It is a carcinogen, but in the real cigarette there are plenty of carcinogenic substances by combustion. Obviously, you have to be careful, improve the product. An Afnor standard will be released in 2015 for e-liquids, in terms of quality and quantity, for water, flavors, alcohol, nicotine and containers.
Source : Letelegramme.fr
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