Regulators shouldn’t disfavor e-cigarettes

Strict regulation of electronic cigarettes isn’t warranted based on current evidence, according to a HealthDay News story quoting a new study and reproduced on the HealthFinder.gov section of the US Department of Health and Human Services’ website.

On the contrary, allowing electronic cigarettes to compete with regular cigarettes might cut tobacco-related deaths and illness, the researchers concluded after reviewing 81 prior studies on the use and safety of the nicotine-emitting devices.

“Current evidence suggests that there is a potential for smokers to reduce their health risks if electronic cigarettes are used in place of tobacco cigarettes and are considered a step toward ending all tobacco and nicotine use,” said study researcher Thomas Eissenberg, co-director of the Center for the Study of Tobacco Products at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond.

Although the long-term risks of using electronic cigarettes remained unknown, the new study concluded that the benefits of using these devices as a no-smoking aid outweighed potential harms.

The study, partly funded by the US National Institutes of Health, was published on July 30 in the journal Addiction.

The full story is at: http://healthfinder.gov/News/Article.aspx?id=690268.