New UCL study should reassure smokers

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_empty_space][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”1188″ img_size=”medium” align=”vc_align_center”][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Irish Vape Vendors Association comment on new study which shows that vaping is a safer alternative to smoking.

 

Researchers from University College London, in a study funded by Cancer Research UK, followed smokers who switched entirely to e-cigarettes and measured levels of 26 potentially harmful chemicals in the body, by looking at samples of their urine and saliva. They compared the results with smokers who used NRT such as patches, gums or lozenges found that the both groups had reduced their intake of toxins to similar levels.

This new research adds to the extensive arsenal of evidence which shows that for smokers, vaping is a safer alternative, and comes a day after a different study fund that across the EU, smokers in the UK are switching to vaping faster than any other country.

A recent HIQA draft Health Technology Assessment on smoking cessation interventions found that if the rate of Irish smokers switching to vaping was similar to that of the UK, it would represent a cost saving to the state.

The Irish Vape Vendors Association highlighted in their submission to the HIQA public consultation on the assessment, that policies on vaping would need to change before the same level of uptake was seen here.

The Irish implementation of EU regulations on e-cigarettes mean that Irish smokers would have to wait 6 months longer to access the same products as smokers in the UK or France.

‘’The EU regulation will slow innovation in this fast paced marketplace anyway, but knowing how much of a positive these products are for smokers it makes little sense to hold them hostage’’, said IVVA administrator Gillian Golden.

‘’To see the full public health gains that vaping represents, we need a suite of policies that supports both the smokers switching, and the independent businesses who serve the market’’.

 

 

 

http://scienceblog.cancerresearchuk.org/2017/02/06/new-study-comes-the-closest-yet-to-proving-that-e-cigarettes-arent-as-dangerous-as-smoking/

http://www.cityam.com/258441/british-smokers-switching-e-cigarettes-faster-than-anyone

https://www.ivva.ie/latest-news/hiqa-draft-report-highlights-issues-policies-vaping/

https://www.ivva.ie/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/IVVA-HIQA-HTA-Submission-Upload.pdf

 

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