A New Zealand doctor believes that shifting smokers onto electronic cigarettes represents a “win”, according to a story on TVNZ.
The doctor said that electronic cigarettes were going to be “absolutely fantastic”.
The report described electronic cigarettes as a product that was becoming increasingly popular among smokers.
But it claimed that new research had suggested that while vaping these products might be better than smoking traditional cigarettes, they came with their own set of problems.
But on TVNZ’s Breakfast program, Doctor John Cameron was upbeat.
“If we can get everyone who’s smoking tobacco related products and put them onto e-cigarettes, I think we have got a win,” he said.
It was known that the best thing to put in your lungs was fresh air, no question about it, he added.
And the worst thing you could put into your lungs was the smoke from burnt tobacco leaves.
Vaping sat somewhere in the middle.
There was nothing wrong with nicotine as a drug, it was the delivery system that mattered.
Talking about the down-sides of electronic cigarettes, Cameron said there was a risk people might turn to vaping who had never picked up a cigarette and smoked before.
“You are developing a behaviour which is inhaling a substance that may or may not do some damage to your lungs, it’s probably minuscule but are we going to say it is a good thing to do? So that is where the conundrum currently lies.”