Cathal BarryWe are all well aware by now of the dangers of smoking. It increases your risk of many kinds of cancer – the most common being lung, lip, mouth or throat cancer.
It can lead to blood clots in your heart or brain and cause a heart attack or stroke, while decreasing the amount of oxygen flowing to your heart and other organs.
Cigarette smoking may also cause long-term lung infections or diseases, such as asthma, emphysema or chronic bronchitis. You are also at higher risk for respiratory illnesses, such as colds or pneumonia.
This is just the tip of the ice-berg. The list goes on and on.
As a result, many people have tried to kick the habit. Some go ‘cold turkey’ while others opt for alternatives such as chewing gum or wearing patches which deliver a controlled dose of nicotine to help tackle cravings.
More recently, however, people have been turning to electronic cigarettes – battery-powered vaporisers which produce a similar feel to tobacco smoking.
So-called ‘e-cigarettes’, which are often designed to look and feel like the real deal, have been marketed as cheaper and healthier alternatives to cigarettes and for use in places where smoking is not permitted since they do not produce smoke.
When a user sucks on the device, a sensor detects air flow and heats the liquid in the cartridge so that it evaporates. The vapor delivers the nicotine to the user. There is no side-stream smoke but some nicotine vapor is released into the air as the smoker exhales.
The problem is that the risks involved in what has become known as ‘vaping’ are uncertain. There is very little data regarding health effects and considerable variability between vaporisers and in the composition, concentration and quality of their liquid ingredients.
Position paper
The Irish Cancer Society last year published a position paper on electronic cigarettes. According to its research, there are approximately 134,000 e-cigarette users in Ireland.
Essentially, the position paper points out that research into the long-term effects of them using e-cigarettes is not yet available, rendering the Irish Cancer Society unable to recommend their use.
The society warns that they “would not currently recommend” e-cigarettes to those trying to quit smoking as the effectiveness of e-cigarettes in helping people to quit smoking “has not been scientifically demonstrated”.
Likewise, they insist that “potential risks they pose for the health of users remain undetermined”. Furthermore, scientific testing indicates that the products vary widely in the amount of nicotine and other chemicals they deliver and there is no way for consumers to find out what is actually delivered by the product they have purchased.
As e-cigarettes do not generate the smoke that is associated with smoking tobacco, their use is commonly believed to be safer than smoking tobacco. The Irish Cancer Society argues that this “illusion of safety” can be enticing to smokers.
However, it ultimately warns that “the chemicals used in electronic cigarettes have not been fully disclosed and there are no adequate data on their emissions”.
Perhaps cold turkey is for the best after all.