Take Note: Vaping Also Harms Health

People are becoming increasingly aware of the dangers of smoking. Many choose to quit for their own health and for the health of their families. However, many still find it difficult to quit, and the tobacco market has shown no sign of decline. At the same time, some have spotted another business opportunity: making e-cigarettes. They believe these products can satisfy people’s smoking needs while being less harmful than smoking. But is that really the case? Are e-cigarettes beneficial or harmful to health? Let’s take a look.

　　Since e-cigarettes first appeared, people have been studying them. In a report released in Geneva on the 26th, the World Health Organization said that e-cigarettes also produce toxic substances and harm health, and that governments should take steps to ban the sale of e-cigarettes to minors.

　　This is an official report that clearly prohibits adolescents from using e-cigarettes. First, let’s look at what an e-cigarette is.

　　E-cigarettes, also known as “electronic nicotine delivery systems,” vaporize a liquid containing a small amount of nicotine into an aerosol that is inhaled by the user. Like traditional cigarettes, they are inhaled, but they do not produce smoke in the same way. In fact, e-cigarettes originated in China, which is also a major smoking country.

　　These e-cigarettes first appeared in China in 2005. However, because their history is relatively short, governments around the world have lacked effective regulation. In response, the WHO drafted a report on “Electronic Nicotine Delivery Systems,” which was planned to be submitted for discussion and approval at the Conference of the Parties to the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control held in Moscow in October that year.

　　WHO experts pointed out: “An important purpose of releasing this report through the Secretariat of the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control is to call for global rules on ‘electronic nicotine delivery systems,’ a term that broadly refers to e-cigarettes and similar products.” This is because e-cigarettes contain a liquid often referred to as an aerosolizing agent, whose main ingredients are nicotine, propylene glycol, glycerin, and flavorings. The WHO stated that harmful substances can also be produced during the atomization process.

　　In addition, the WHO said in the report that there is sufficient evidence showing that pregnant women and women of childbearing age who use e-cigarettes may cause adverse effects on fetal brain development. The WHO report shows that the e-cigarette market is currently developing rapidly, with global spending on e-cigarettes reaching US$3 billion in 2013. By 2030, sales are expected to increase 17-fold.

　　These figures all suggest that e-cigarettes also pose significant risks to our health. Yet in some countries, more and more people are using e-cigarettes, especially adolescents, and the trend continues to rise. According to a report by the U.S. Chinese-language news site Qiaobao, a new U.S. study found that in 2013, more than 250,000 middle and high school students in the United States who did not smoke were using e-cigarettes, a figure that had tripled compared with 2011. Global smoking cessation efforts aim to reduce the number of smokers, but increasing e-cigarette use among adolescents may lead to more new smokers. This will create new health risks for even more people.