NICCOLÒ FABRETTI
The electronic cigarettes are they harmful or help to give up the habit of smoking? In the report of theHigher Institute of Health disclosed last year, i you smoked in Italy they are growing (24.2% of the population). The data is worrying and confirms the ineffectiveness of the strategies implemented so far in our country to combat the problem. And just as the debate is rekindled, the voices in support of the use of E-cig as main deterrence tool. Above all, it is the oldest and most prestigious scientific journal in the world, Nature Medicine, confirming the effectiveness of E-cigs in the complex road to cigarette smoking cessation in an article published last February 13th. Starting from the analysis of Cochrane Library, Nature reports that the rate of giving up smoking thanks to the use of electronic cigarettes has passed in the United States and England from 10 to 15%. The magazine reports some studies conducted in the US in the centers for control and prevention which confirm that smokers are more likely to quit using electronic cigarettes than any other product, including drugs for addiction cessation. A result also made evident, says Nature, by the inversely proportional relationship between the sale of the two types of cigarettes: sample studies, in fact, show that as sales of the former increase, those of the latter decrease, and vice versa. As demonstrated, for example, by the case of Minnesota, where policies that have reduced the use of e-cigarettes have, albeit unintentionally, increased cigarette consumption traditional. In the light of these data, the introduction of E-cigs in British anti-smoking centers, at the urging of the Health Authorities, is not surprising.
ANTI-SMOKING CENTERS – But how was the approach to the problem of the different public health policies? Speaking of the licensing processes in the United States, Nature points out that “standards could pose a problem for e-cigarettes, which probably carry some health risks, even locations far lower than those of cigarettes”. From a strictly medical point of view, in fact, the magazine warns that the E-cig does not offer a zero-risk service (even if it is very close), but also points out that government health agencies and professional societies in some countries, such as in England and New Zealand are even encouraging healthcare professionals to consider e-cigarettes as a cessation option on par with medically licensed pharmacotherapies by including them in public education campaigns to promote smoking cessation. In the USA and Canada the approach is more cautious but the recent authorization for the trade by the Food and Drug Administrationthe government agency that deals with the regulation of food and pharmaceutical products, through some measures has indirectly admitted that electronic cigarettes can help some individuals to quit smoking.
LONG TERM – Overall, says Nature, E-cigs are decidedly less harmful and dangerous than traditional ones, both in the short and long term, given that their aerosol “contains levels of harmful or potentially harmful substances, up to 95% less compared to cigarette smoke. It is not a political recommendation, but exquisitely scientific the one contained in the conclusions of the authors who, confirming that they view the use of the vaping as a less harmful alternative to cigarette smoking, they call on the governments of the most skeptical countries to “consider more fully the potential of e-cigarettes to increase smoking cessation”. As for the risk of dependence from nicotine to young people, an objection often used to justify potential bans, the experts Nature argue that the use of e-cigarettes as an effective method of quitting will also depend on efforts to reduce access to and use of products by minors who have never smoked. The two objectives, they explain, can and must coexist.
