E-cigarettes are 95 percent less harmful than tobacco: UK study

[PoliticAverse]

Electronic cigarettes are around 95 percent less harmful than tobacco and should be promoted as a tool to help smokers quit, a study by an agency of Britain's Department of Health said on Wednesday.

E-cigarettes, tobacco-free devices people use to inhale nicotine-laced vapor, have surged in popularity on both sides of the Atlantic but health organizations have so far been wary of advocating them as a safer alternative to tobacco and governments from California to India have tried to introduce bills to regulate their use more strictly.

"E-cigarettes are not completely risk free but when compared to smoking, evidence shows they carry just a fraction of the harm," said Professor Kevin Fenton from Public Health England, which carried out the study.

Most of the chemicals that cause smoking-related diseases are absent in e-cigarettes and the current best estimate is that e-cigarette use is around 95 percent less harmful to health than smoking, the study said.

Resd the rest at: http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/08/18/us-health-britain-ecigarettes-idUSKCN0QN2AC20150818

[russspeakeasy]

1. Thanks for posting this.

[underahedgerow]

2. I can appreciate the E cigarettes, but they didn't work for me, they didn't feed the jones that

I have for cigarettes. I'm a lifelong smoker, my parents smoked non-stop around me as an infant and I bought my first pack when I was about 12. Have smoked typically for 5 years on, 5 years off ever since. Longest I ever quit was about 8 years I think, then a crisis will hit and I'll be back on. I just finished nearly 6 years on a couple weeks ago. I struggled with the e-cigs and felt like I was drowning with them. I could feel a fluid build up in my lungs that promised serious festering and infection. It was just an instinct, but one I have to listen to.

Plus I was always afraid the damn charger would explode on me. Silly paranoia.

For now, I'm not smoking. I don't particularly feel any better, but I know that I smell better! I didn't feel ill while smoking and still had more stamina than my uber healthy rock climbing friend. Never figured that out.

I always have to use nasty negative imagery to turn myself off smoking. This time I visualize a really awful picture of beagle puppies in a laboratory all strapped up to masks where they're forced to smoke so they can be tested for the effects of smoking. POOR BEAGLE PUPPIES!!!!! OMG.... so whenever I want a cigarette I pull that image up in my head...

http://www.whitecoatwaste.com/stop-unnecessary-experiments-on-beagles/

[pipoman]

4. They didn't work for me either and made me feel congested too

I quit April 12 using the patch for 6 weeks. Last time I quit for a year, the time before I quit for 7 years...this time I will never touch another tobacco product again..

[Marrah_G]

22. The ecigs didnt work for me, but the vape pens did the trick

I switch around flavors and haven't wanted to smoke at all. The patch didn't work for me. I think it's terrific to have a bunch of options so people can figure out what works for them.

[phleshdef]

8. You didn't get a good enough device.

If you get the right setup, it WILL work and totally fulfill the craving. I had cheap models to start off with and that was rough.

[beevul]

9. Thats the single most common failing in the chain.

A substandard device.

[phleshdef]

11. Yea, you need a good 510 based mod with interchangeable batteries and good tank/atomizer and liquid.

I have a Panzer mod with an Aspire Atlantis tank and I buy decent liquid. Its a little bit of an investment up front, but after that, you'll spend WAY less money than you do on cigs. I'm 5 years away from my last cigarette and as a person who highly enjoyed smoking cigs for 8 years, I find vaping to be superior in taste and effect.

[RobinA]

31. I Started

with decent equipment and got off cigarettes immediately. For about four months I thought, Well, this is fine, but if e-cigs disappear I'm back on cigs in about an hour. After those first couple months I started to forget to vape and realized I could be cigarette free forever. I still vape and I do enjoy it more in taste. In effect I don't find that e-cigs have QUITE the hit that cigarettes did, but I am now to the point where I can just say no. I've been cigarette free for two years and can even go nicotine free in the e-cig. I keep a pack of Marlboros around just to prove I can. Also, if I hear an asteroid is headed toward earth I plan on smoking the bad boys again.

[Mariana]

14. I think the tobacco co's are deliberately making bad e-cigs

and advertising them heavily, and selling them everywhere in order to turn people off of using e-cigs to quit smoking. I just can't think of any other reason for them to be putting out such shitty products. I think they want people to try their crappy e-cigs, hate them, figure that all e-cigs are that lousy, and just continue to smoke.

[beevul]

15. That is entirely possible...

though I think its much more simple:

The people that the tobacco companies employ to understand the market and the technology the market uses, have failed miserably.

They don't know what they don't know. The difference in tech functionality is just one of the things that they don't know that they don't know, and there are many. The same, incidentally, could be said for the FDA where vapes are concerned.

[TheKentuckian]

20. Yep, closely followed by too low a strength of nicotine

I over powered my craving by upping the ante not trying to reduce (which most people who fail try) or at best match what they were doing smoking not accounting for the difference in absorbtion because of the delivery system.

I started with XX strength from white cloud which was a crazy like 52mg, then moved to 36, and then 24.

If you've been smoking 2 packs of Reds a day for 20 years sitting around puffing 12mg out of a cigalike isn't likely to do the trick.

[Mariana]

21. Indeed.

A heavy smoker has to start with a liquid that has a good strong dose of nicotine.

I was able to make the switch instantly. and this was during a very stressful time in my life - the house was up for sale and we were moving to another state. I wasn't even planning to, no one tries to quit smoking at a time like that. The model I'd been thinking about trying went on sale for half price because it was an ugly color. I bought two starter kits, figuring I'd go ahead and try to switch after the move. The kits included a little bottle of liquid each, strength and flavor of my choice. I chose 36, I think, I don't remember the flavors. When they arrived I opened them up to make sure everything worked, and out of curiosity to see just what it felt/tasted like. I never smoked again after the very first drag. Whenever the urge came I took a few hits on the e-cig and that took care of it. That was four years ago. I still vape, most of the time with zero nicotine. My favorite flavor is blueberry.

[underahedgerow]

16. Sure I did, I paid nearly 100 bucks for the first one I tried. But that and the 3 models I tried

subsequently still made me feel like I was drowning. I'm sure it's my own biology, somewhat prone to bronchitis and pneumonia.

[phleshdef]

17. So smoke doesn't aggravate that but e-liquid does?

And what were all those models you tried, if you you don't mind my asking?

[Jamastiene]

18. Smoke doesn't bother my breathing, but

one day spent sanding a woodworking project and my lungs feel like they are full of fluid...and that is WITH an OSHA approved face mask. I know it sounds weird, but it is possible. Maybe some of us aren't sensitive to the cigarettes, but are sensitive to something in the e-cigs. I tried blu and some other brand I can't even remember. Both made my lungs hurt horribly. I would like to find a good e-cig that satisfies the cravings. If any of them can ever simulate Pall Mall, that sweet taste of them, that will end up being my new "brand."

[Contrary1]

30. You might try going to a vape shop...

You can sample some of the E-Cigs and juices at most of them. There are several brands that make a flavor that simulate Pall Mall.

[underahedgerow]

19. YES, isn't that bizarre? I will admit my chronic smoker's cough has abated a lot in the past

week, but oddly I'm not coughing up the chunks like I did "all the other times' I quit. I was coughing up some really strange chunks on the e-cigs and couldn't expand my lungs. It literally felt like they were filling up with fluid.
I'm sorry but I don't recall the brands of e-cigs I got, the last one was at least a year ago and ended up in the bin with the rest of them eventually. I'm the anomaly I'm sure, and can't be bothered to figure out why really...

I am really glad that so many people have had such success with vaping. ANYTHING is better than giving the tobacco companies so much money so that we can slowly commit suicide. Horrible habit, just horrible. Both my parents died from smoking related illnesses, and several of my friends, one very, very dear, due to smoking related cancer. I wish it were illegal.....

[LadyHawkAZ]

24. I had the same reaction to the vegetable glycerin -based liquids

Switched to a PG base and I was fine.

[haikugal]

29. I was going to say the same thing...veg glycerin based liquids ruin me. nt

[jberryhill]

28. Some people seem to be sensitive to PG

Going from a propylene glycol to a vegetable glycerin base can make a difference, but the straight VG liquids don't perform as well, IMHO.

[msongs]

3. they still poison the people around them nt

[pipoman]

5. What one says as they are driving to work?

As they are cooking with gas, heating their home, burning their fire place, wearing perfume, .....

[CBGLuthier]

10. You need a car, you need to eat, you need to be warm

No one needs to consume nicotine.

One of my oldest friends lost his wife to cancer yesterday.

A decent society would storm the tobacco companies, run them out of business, and destroy all the fields the way they do poppy fields.

[pipoman]

12. Who the hell are you to decide what someone else needs or wants?

I disagree that you need to poision me to run to the corner store. Your existence emits dangerous gasses...someone inhaling vapor has absolutely no effect on you that isn't quadrupled with every step you take outside just in vehicle emissions...

Yeah, that effort of tearing out the poppy plants has sure eliminated black market opiates eh?...no, it is prohibition that is a failure just like the failed prohibitions throughout history. In fact your comments remind me of Carry Nation's words....

[LanternWaste]

26. A need is both easily and objectively defined

"Who the hell are you to decide what someone else needs..."

A need is both easily and objectively defined, and ingestion of tobacco does not fall within that particular parameter (it does however, fall well within both the formal and the informal parameter of a 'want'. ) Observing as much is not deciding what others need

I've often rationalized to myself nicotine as a need, but at the end of the day, I am forced to realize that a rationalization is all it really is.

[U4ikLefty]

7. I like to blow my vapor into the faces of innocent

4th graders where they die while crying for their mommies.

That's how we roll on the e-cig train. Be warned!!1!!11

[pipoman]

13. you're a poisioner...shame....

[Cal Carpenter]

23. Not true according to recent studies

"Nicotine levels in e-cigarette users homes was significantly lower than that found in cigarette smokers homes (average concentration 7.7 ± 17.2 vs. 1303 ± 2676 ?g/m2"

"There was no significant difference in the amount of nicotine in homes of e-cigarette users and non-users"

Trace amounts of nicotine, having nothing to do with tobacco, can be found almost everywhere. Homes with people vaping indoors have similar levels to those who don't smoke and have never smoked in their homes.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=7080442

I wonder if you'll stop making this false claim now that more studies are coming out...

[Liberal Veteran]

25. You probably get more toxins from a car driving by you than an e-cig near you. -nt

[tritsofme]

27. Everyone mocks this post, but the sad thing is that people like this

are the ones actually making the rules.

[ellisonz]

6. I think the debate over e-cigarettes is pretty much settled.

This study clearly demonstrates the efficacy of the devices as an effective, safer substitute.

[Oilwellian]

32. European doctors and scientists have studied ecigs for ten years

This is a good collection of many of their studies:

http://www.ecigalternative.com/ecigarette-studies-research.htm

This one is an eye-opener:

http://nicotinepolicy.net/documents/letters/MargaretChan.pdf