E-Cigarettes Should be a Last Resort, Heart Doctors Say http://nbcnews.to/1nsjQNC
.@NBCNewsHealth @NBCNews clearly the 1st resort should be #Chantix, as it may eliminate the "problem" once & for all
E-Cigarettes Should be a Last Resort, Heart Doctors Say
by Maggie Fox
New research shows that teens are not using e-cigarettes to quit. The latest Centers for Disease Control and Prevention survey released Monday shows more than 263,000 middle-and high-schoolers who had never smoked before tried e-cigarettes in 2013. That's triple the number from 2011 and reinforces the argument that vaping can be a gateway to nicotine addiction.
"Over the last 50 years, 20 million Americans died because of tobacco. We are fiercely committed to preventing the tobacco industry from addicting another generation of smokers," Nancy Brown, CEO of the American Heart Association, says in a statement.
The Food and Drug Administration says it plans to regulate e-cigarettes, along with cigars and other tobacco products. Many "vapers" who use e-cigarettes say regulation will damage a product that's a far safer substitute for cigarettes.
The Heart Association disagrees. "In the years since the FDA first announced it would assert its authority over e-cigarettes, the market for these products has grown dramatically," Brown said. "We fear that any additional delay of these new regulations will have real, continuing public health consequences."
Dr. Nancy Snubs Out E-Cigarette Myths
1:55
The Food and Drug Administration says it plans to regulate e-cigarettes,
along with cigars and other tobacco products. Health advocates say it's
about time, but many "vapers" who use e-cigarettes say regulation will
damage a product that's a far safer substitute for cigarettes
Even health experts agree that electronic cigarettes might be useful in helping people who want to quit smoking. So where's the harm in them?
Mostly, it's the unknown, the FDA says. "We can't even tell you what the compounds are in the vapor," FDA's Mitch Zeller told reporters.
Even health experts agree that electronic cigarettes might be useful in helping people who want to quit smoking. So where's the harm in them?
Mostly, it's the unknown, the FDA says. "We can't even tell you what the compounds are in the vapor," FDA's Mitch Zeller told reporters.
The FDA is also asking for research on potential harms from inhaling the heated mixture. It might not be as harmful as burning tobacco leaves, but it might not be completely benign, either, says Dr. John Spangler, who runs a smoking cessation clinic at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center in North Carolina.
"It is true that electronic cigarettes are safer than regular cigarettes. On the other hand there are some effects in the lung of the vapors which mimic the same kind of changes that go along with asthma," Spangler told NBC News.
"That happens within 5 minutes of using an electronic cigarette. We don't know how long that will last or whether it will lead to permanent lung damage."
Spangler's been studying this and doesn't have final data yet. But in general, e-cigarettes appear slightly less effective than nicotine gum or patches or drugs such as Chantix, he says.
And experts argue that if e-cigarette makers wanted their products used as quit-smoking aids, they'd have submitted them to the FDA as such. Instead, manufacturers fought FDA's attempts to regulate them in that way, and won in federal appeals court.
"Electronic cigarettes may represent the next evolution of nicotine replacement, supplanting the gum, patch and the existing inhaler. However, most consumers would be shocked to realize the products they buy have less oversight than a bag of dog food, and are often manufactured and imported from countries that have histories of tainted pharmaceutical and food products," Cobb added.
Glynn and others remember that the tobacco industry first told Americans that cigarettes were healthful, and then battled the U.S. government in court for decades when the Surgeon General declared that smoking caused cancer. It took decades to prove that tobacco companies colluded to make cigarettes ever more addictive and to cover up research showing tobacco caused not only cancer, but heart disease, stroke, emphysema and other diseases.
They also point to industry attempts to market "light" cigarettes as less dangerous — research shows they are not — and companies have pushed menthol cigarettes despite evidence that menthol worsens the health effects.
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http://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/e-cigarettes-should-be-last-resort-heart-doctors-say-n187196?cid=sm_twitter_feed_health
