- New report by U.N. agency raises fears over safety of the electronic devices
- Says their use should be regulated and sales to minors banned
- Still unclear whether exhaled vapour poses health risk to bystanders
- WHO fears fierce competition for market share may be compromising safety
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There are fears that e-cigarettes still carry the risks of passive smoking, a new report warns
E-cigarettes should be banned from indoor spaces and face sale restrictions, the World Health Organisation said today.
Despite releasing vapour instead of smoke, the devices still carry still carry a passive health risk, experts claim.
The essential argument is that while e-cigarettes release lower levels of toxins than standard tobacco, there is no guarantee this level is safe.
In fact some devices may be no safer for bystanders’ health than regular cigarettes, the new WHO report says.
Until the exhaled vapor is proven not to harm health,
electronic cigarettes should be regulated and banned from use indoors.
The U.N. health agency has also called for a ban on sales to minors and to either forbid or minimise any advertising, promotion or sponsorship.
Vending machines should be removed ‘in almost all locations’, the report says.
It also recommends preventing manufacturers from
marketing e-cigarettes as ‘smoking cessation aids’ until they provide
scientific evidence to back the claim.
The WHO fears the ‘apparently booming’ $3 billion global
market for more than 400 brands of e-cigarettes is becoming
an ever-aggressive competition for market share – with safety almost becoming a secondary priority.Â
In the report to its 194 member nations, it says the rapid growth of e-cigarette use globally means appropriate regulation is needed.
It is also needed to ensure ‘that adequate research is conducted, the public health is protected and people made aware of the potential risks and benefits’.
The document will be discussed at a WHO conference on the public health treaty for controlling tobacco, scheduled to be held in Moscow in October.
In the UK, electronic
cigarettes are currently regulated as consumer products.
But from 2016, any nicotine-containing products which make medicinal
claims – such as claiming they are a stop-smoking aid – will be
regulated by the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency.
Yesterday the American Heart Association urged more regulation to keep e-cigarettes out of the hands of young people.
It added it only supported the use of the battery-powered devices that vaporise nicotine as a last resort to help smokers quit.
The new report also recommends preventing manufacturers from marketing e-cigarettes as ‘smoking cessation aids’ until they provide scientific evidence to back the claim
E-cigarettes are officially known as electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS).
The World Health Organisation report released today said: ‘The fact that ENDS exhaled aerosol contains, on average, lower levels of toxicants than the emissions from combusted tobacco does not mean that these levels are acceptable to involuntarily exposed bystanders.’
The report added: ‘In fact, exhaled aerosol is likely to increase above background levels the risk of disease to bystanders, especially in the case of some ENDS that produce toxicant levels in the range of that produced by some cigarettes.’
So far, the evidence that e-cigarettes helped people quit smoking was ‘limited’ and “does not allow conclusions to be reached’, the Geneva-based WHO said.
The document continued: ‘Although anecdotal reports indicate that an undetermined proportion of ENDS users have quit smoking using these products, their efficacy has not been systematically evaluated yet.
And only a few studies have examined whether the use of e-cigarettes are an effective method for quitting tobacco smoking, it adds.
The one ‘randomised control trial’ that has been carried out found that the devices were about as effective as nicotine patches.
Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) said it could not support any plans to include electronic cigarettes under smokefree legislation.
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