E-cigarettes: Facts and legal status
- Author:
Davendralingam Sinniah
;
Erwin Jiayuan Khoo
- Publication Type:Review
- Keywords:
E-cigarettes;
nicotine addiction;
cancer risk;
brain development consequence;
legislation
- MeSH:
Electronic Cigarettes
- From:International e-Journal of Science, Medicine and Education
2015;9(3):10-19
- CountryMalaysia
- Language:English
-
Abstract:
The sale of tobacco-based cigarettes has
declined in western countries, and ‘Big Tobacco’ is trying
to make up the deficit in profits from the developing
world. The recent introduction of e-cigarette, in
which they have invested both their hopes and their
finances, has been a boon to them as it serves to
confuse smokers and non-smokers about the real issues
relating to the toxicity, dangers, and the promotion of
nicotine addiction especially among youths who have
not previously smoked cigarettes. E-cigarettes cause
inflammation and damage to epithelial cells in human
airways and increased risk of infection. E-cigarette
vapour contains more carcinogens like formaldehyde
and acetaldehyde compared to a regular cigarette. Longterm
vaping is associated with an incremental lifetime
cancer risk. E-cigarettes are neither safe nor effective
in helping smokers quit; there is enough evidence to
caution children, adolescents, pregnant women, and
women of reproductive age about e-cigarette’s potential
for long term consequences to foetal and adolescent
brain development that sub-serve emotional and
cognitive functions. The nicotine effects that cause
modification of late CNS development constitute a
hazard of adolescent nicotine use. The American Heart
Association (AHA), Food and Drug Administration
(FDA), World Health Organisation (WHO) and twothirds
of the major nations in the world discourage the
promotion of e-cigarettes as an alternative to proven
nicotine-addiction treatments. Doctors, health care
workers, and medical students should be armed with the
facts about e-cigarettes, its dangers, and the legal status
concerning its use, in order to be able to offer proper
counselling to patients and adolescents, in particular,
with special reference to the Malaysian context.
- Full text:P020151207410963284043.pdf
