UK Health Radio Medical News Update – On the Hour - e-Cigarette Update.

UK Health Radio Medical News Update – On the Hour

E-Cigarette Update.

The subject of the e-cigarette continues to make the news and the BBC have reported that researchers have now said that if smokers were to switch to e-cigarettes more than six thousand lives every year would be saved.

The researchers who have been assessing the e-cigarette for any potential to harm others say that the claims that the e-cigarette poses a significant health risk are alarmist.  This follows the call by the World Health Organisation recently for a ban on the use of the e-cigarette in public.   The WHO gave as their reason for calling for the ban, the increase of some toxins and nicotine that would be released into the atmosphere.   They also sited concern that using the e-cigarette might lead to a transition to smoking real cigarettes in some people, with concern particularly centring on children.

However researchers at UCL said that the number of people in the UK who are using the e-cigarette is less than 1% and that the toxins released were minimal with no where near the concentrations of carcinogens and toxins as are found in the smoke from real cigarettes.   The research challenges the findings by the WHO and calls them misleading.   Prof. John Ashton who is the president of the Faculty of Public Health said that while he did not want to see a ban he did not want to think that all the good work that has been done to deter smoking could be undone, or, as has been suggested, that the new e cigarette become appealing to people who have been non smokers.

We will bring you more on this debate of our times.

Amanda Thomas

UK Health Radio Medical News Update on the Hour

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