Respiratory experts have urged parliament not to ease access to electronic cigarettes, saying new evidence has confirmed that vaping has little benefit in tobacco smoking cessation and harms the lungs.
Professor Matthew Peters, Professor of Respiratory Medicine, Macquarie University, Sydney, has told a parliamentary inquiry into tobacco harm minimisation the ‘plausible’ assumption that e-cigarettes would be effective at in helping smokers quit has now been shown to be untrue.
The former president of TSANZ said papers released in the last few weeks – such as the ITC Four Country Smoking and Vaping Survey – show that vaping does not improve rates of discontinued smoking.
And a six year follow up study of smokers by Italian researchers has found no difference in smoking-related events and markers of general health between those who continued to smoke, dual users and those who quit smoking after switching to vaping.
But of equal concern is the finding that vaping may add to harms of smoking through dual use, said Professor Peters, who is Co-Chair of the TSANZ Electronic Cigarettes Working Party.
He noted that a “massive review” by Tom Wills of studies that covered two million people found that electronic cigarette use increased the risks, symptoms and complications of asthma and COPD by 39% to 49%.
“So it is clear in terms of the health harms we are talking about the safest option is to be a nonsmoker and a nonvaper,” he said.
“However, in Australia and elsewhere the most common pattern is dual use. This is not harm reduction. Dual use is a harm accentuation. That is now clear. Theory has been replaced by evidence.”
Professor Peters added that while some smokers were able to quit while using e-cigarettes, they should only be seen as a last resort.