US
The health benefits of quitting smoking are widely accepted, but researchers from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC) have taken issue with the suggestion that doctors should routinely recommend e-cigarettes as an alternative to cigarettes for their patients who smoke.
The researchers point out in a commentary recently published in Annals of Family Medicine that existing treatments are more effective than e-cigarettes to help people quit smoking, there are professional ethics concerns about providers who recommend them, and there is no strong evidence that e-cigarettes are safe.
The researchers described notable safety and health concerns about e-cigarettes. Batteries inside e-cigarettes have caught fire or exploded, and particulate matter from e-cigarettes, which has been shown to be present in similar numbers to cigarettes, can increase the risk of cardiovascular and respiratory diseases.
UNC researchers’ commentary served as a counterpoint to a paper in the same journal issue by Ann McNeill, PhD, professor of tobacco addiction at King’s College London, that suggests e-cigarettes are a less harmful way for smokers, including those trying to quit, to use nicotine.
“Though e-cigarettes are likely not as harmful as conventional cigarettes, a growing number of studies report that they are by no means harmless,” said Clare Meernik, MPH, a research specialist in the UNC Department of Family Medicine.
The researchers also noted that e-cigarettes have been less effective than existing treatments to help people quit smoking.
But while the researchers advise against the routine recommendation of e-cigarettes, they know firsthand that smoking cessation for individual patients is rarely black and white, and that providers must look at each patient’s unique situation.