By Asim Hussain
ISLAMABAD: Royal College of Physicians highlights E-cigarettes as a tool for reducing tobacco harm and calls for tighter regulations to protect non-smokers, particularly young people.
E-cigarettes are still valuable in combating the effects of tobacco use, yet steps should be taken to minimize their allure, accessibility, and affordability to non-smokers, especially youths, while also addressing environmental concerns, says a report from the UK Royal College of Physicians.
The primary discovery of the report from the UK Royal College of Physicians examines the role of e-cigarettes in preventing fatalities, disabilities, and disparities associated with tobacco usage.
The report, E-cigarettes and harm reduction: An evidence review, reviews how e-cigarettes can be used to support more people to make quit attempts while discouraging young people and never-smokers from taking up e-cigarette use. “E-cigarettes should be promoted as an effective means of helping people who smoke to quit smoking tobacco,” it said. Comprehensive evidence reviews on the role of e-cigarettes have been commissioned in the UK at regular intervals by Public Health England (PHE) and subsequently the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities (OHID).
The report examines trends in tobacco and vaping use, the effectiveness of e-cigarettes to treat tobacco addiction, the differences in health effects of vaping in people who smoke, vape or do neither, the role of the tobacco industry in the rising use of e-cigarettes, and the ethical dilemmas presented by e-cigarettes.
There is a marked variation in international approaches to e-cigarettes. It added that current evidence suggests nicotine itself confers little risk to health, though acute exposure at typical levels from consumer nicotine products can result in addiction, short-term enhanced cognitive effects, elevated heart rate and systolic blood pressure. It will, however, take decades to accurately quantify any effects of long-term non-tobacco nicotine use.
The report maintained e-cigarettes may have a benefit in both stopping smoking and harm reduction in smokers with mental illness, including those who are not motivated to quit and have been unable to quit before.
The report calls for regulating vaping to protect young people and never smokers from vaping. It wants to raise the prices of vaping by introducing an excise tax and minimum unit pricing while banning multi-buy purchases but making sure they remain a less expensive option for adults using them to quit smoking.
The report also calls for restricting ‘point of sale’ in store promotional materials and product visibility, and restricting promotion on social media, along with ensuring Trading Standards services are sufficiently resourced to effectively enforce e-cigarette sales legislation and reduce underage sales.
The RCP wants vaping products to be less appealing to young people by introducing standardized packaging and flavor descriptors.
