Paradigm Shift Needed In Pan America’s Approach to End Smoking
World No Tobacco Day serves as an important reminder of the harmful effects of cigarette smoking and the need for…
Balfour et al., “Balancing Consideration of the Risks and Benefits of E-Cigarettes,” American Journal of Public Health 111, September 2021.
Key Points:
- In September, fifteen former presidents of the highly regarded research institution, Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco (SRNT) co-authored a paper endorsing the benefits of e-cigarettes in reducing smoking deaths.
- The paper concluded that vaping is likely far less hazardous than smoking and warned that policies intended to reduce youth vaping risk could have a negative impact on the number of adults using vaping to quit.
- The authors firmly believe that vaping can benefit public health, given substantial evidence which shows that vaping can reduce the harms of smoking.
- They assess four categories of evidence, all of which demonstrate that vaping is beneficial for smoking cessation: (1) the results of randomised trials, (2) population studies, (3) cigarette sales, and (4) the unintended consequences of policies restricting vaping.
- They advise national governments to pursue a more “sensible mix of policies” in order to both reduce youth vaping and increase the potential for smoking cessation.
