Is Vaping Harmful? The Most Comprehensive International Health and Safety Analysis

Are e-cigarettes harmful? Recently, e-cigarettes have attracted unprecedented attention. 72 international experts jointly called on the WHO to pay attention to the promotion of e-cigarettes, pay attention to steam, smoke-free, heated tobacco or new products, and adopt a more positive attitude towards new technologies and innovations. For a time, international heated discussions were formed.

In China, there is no authoritative conclusion on the safety performance and health status of e-cigarettes. Can e-cigarettes help you quit smoking? Is it true that the so-called electronic cigarette is 7 times more harmful than ordinary cigarettes? Does it have safety standards? What is the international regulatory policy? What are the test results from the international health department? I believe it is an issue that many people are concerned about, and this article will provide you with a comprehensive interpretation.

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1. Can e-cigarettes help you quit smoking?

——Become the most popular way to quit smoking in the UK

2. The harm of e-cigarettes is 7 times that of ordinary cigarettes?

——The UK Department of Health says e-cigarettes are 95% healthier than traditional cigarettes

3. Is e-cigarettes harmful to the human body?

——Tests by many international organizations show no toxic hazards

4. E-cigarettes are being shouted by everyone in the world?

——Countries have different regulatory policies and smooth international market circulation

5. There is no quality and safety guarantee for e-cigarettes?

——Industry standards have long been implemented and promulgated, and national mandatory standards are being formulated

1. Can e-cigarettes help you quit smoking?

Become the most popular way to quit smoking in the UK

Public Health England (PHE) has set out to sell steam products in hospitals, the Guardian reported. Professor John Newton, director of the Health Promotion Bureau of PHE, pointed out: In the UK, e-cigarettes have become the most popular way to quit smoking, with 3 million followers. rdquo;

Some hospitals in the UK have developed policies to persuade smokers to switch to steam products, with Colchester General Hospital and pswitch Hospital being good examples. The hospital has removed the designated smoking area and converted it into an outdoor vaping space. Even anti-smoking movement groups like ASH have reached a consensus in the UK on "vaping reduces harm."

In August 2018, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued guidelines for the development of nicotine replacement therapy products, which will mean that nicotine replacement therapy products, including e-cigarettes, may be officially applied to people who quit smoking, a move that is expected to give e-cigarettes a name for smoking cessation aids. For details, please visit the good news. E-cigarettes have been included in the FDA Nicotine Replacement Therapy Product Development Guidelines.

2. The harm of e-cigarettes is 7 times that of ordinary cigarettes?

The UK Department of Health says e-cigarettes are 95% healthier than traditional cigarettes

According to a new report released by PHE (Public Health UK) sponsored by the UK Department of Health, there are already conclusions that new e-cigarettes are up to 95% less harmful than traditional cigarettes. Marlboro once printed this sentence on the new packaging of its cigarettes and signed it PHE (British Public Health) on the back.
 
Ann McNeill, a professor at King's College London, said: E-cigarettes have the potential to change the public health industry, especially by reducing the harm to smokers themselves and to second-hand smoke. rdquo;。

According to BT, Rosanna O Connor, director of the Drugs, Alcohol and Tobacco Division of the Department of Public Health of England, said: Smoking e-cigarettes is different from smoking. Second-hand smoke is harmful to health, but there is no evidence that e-cigarette vapor is equally harmful. rdquo;

On July 13, 2016, according to the American Tobacco Bulletin, British Public Health and 12 other British public health agencies signed a statement agreeing that e-cigarettes are significantly less harmful than cigarettes. The agencies signing the declaration are: Public Health England, Action on Smoking and Health, Public Health, the British Lung Foundation, Cancer Research UK, School of Public Health, Fresh North East, Healthier Futures, the Association of Public Health Directors Action, the Royal College of Physicians, the Royal Society of Public Health, the British Center for Tobacco and Alcohol Research, and the British Health Forum.

At present, the development of e-cigarettes has taken a huge step forward, and now it is necessary to further improve public acceptance.

3. E-cigarettes are harmful to the human body?# p#pagination title #e#

Tests by many international organizations show no toxic hazards

In an e-cigarette safety test-toxicology report conducted by the German Dartsch Scientific certification agency, the e-cigarette liquid vapor containing fruit, tobacco, menthol, and 18 mg of nicotine is not mutagenic, and the vapor has no acute and chronic (long-term) toxicity to human lung cells.
 
Clinical research confirms that e-cigarettes are harmless to the heart

Greek medical researchers have found through research that e-cigarettes will not have a negative impact on consumers 'heart function. This is the conclusion they reached after conducting long-term sample surveys and research on e-cigarette consumers.

At a seminar held by the European Society of Cardiology in May 2013, KONSTANTINOS FARSALINOS, a medical doctor from the ONASSIS Cardiac Surgery Center, also confirmed this view. Russell Luepker, a researcher at the University of Minnesota, also believes that based on the current research results, smoke-free e-cigarette products do pose much less harm to consumer health than ordinary tobacco products.

The United States completes research on the risks of e-cigarettes to human health

For consumers, are e-cigarette products a safe product? Is it a product that reduces health risks? In response to these issues, some researchers in the United States have conducted in-depth research and discussions.

Led by researchers at the School of Public Health at North Carolina State University, more than 100 researchers conducted research on the health risks of e-cigarettes and published their research results in a medical journal called "Public Science Library"(PLOS).

Greek medical doctor: The amount of formaldehyde contained in e-cigarettes is 6 times less

In December 2014, in response to various discussions on the Internet that the carcinogens in e-cigarettes are 10 times higher than those in traditional cigarettes, Greek medical doctor Konstantino found after understanding that although we need to admit that there is still a certain amount of metal carbonyl compounds in high-power e-cigarette sprays (provided that a suitable atomizer is used), the message of this media hype is very clear. Even among the worst Japanese products, e-cigarette sprays contain six times less formaldehyde than traditional cigarette smoke. ldquo; Where do the statements 10 times higher come from?

Dr. Konstantino is a cardiologist and serves as a research scholar at the Onassis Heart Surgery Center in Athens, Greece and the Medical Imaging Research Center at the University Hospital of Levengesburg, Belgium. His main research area is new forms of cardiovascular imaging. He won a research education scholarship from the Greek Heart Foundation in this field. Since 2010, he has used emerging imaging techniques to study the damage of smoking on subclinical heart function. Since 2011, as the project leader, the doctor has actively participated in the clinical and laboratory research of e-cigarettes. His work includes the first study of the effects of e-smoke cytotoxins on artificial cells, and the immediate effects of e-cigarettes on heart function and coronary circulation.

Animal experiments on the main components of e-cigarette smoke have proved that they are harmless to the human body!

The main components in e-cigarette smoke are glycerol and propylene glycol. In order to test the impact on human health, according to the "ASPET" magazine, scientists put orangutans and mice in high-concentration steam for a period of 12 to 18 months. Animal experiments and an equal number of reference control samples were prepared. The results of this experiment, and the fact that there are no human cases of disease caused by exposure to glycerol and propylene glycol vapors, prove that long-term exposure to saturated vapors of glycerol and propylene glycol is harmless.

Human airway research shows that e-cigarette vapor is similar to air and has no toxic effects!

A foreign human airway study showed that e-cigarette vapor experimental results were similar to air. This study was published in a new in vitro study in toxicology (DOI: 10.1016 / j.tiv.2015.05.018). The e-cigarette vapor produced by two different types of e-cigarettes has no toxic effects on human respiratory tissues.

The researchers first tested biological systems with known liquid stimulants. Experimental results showed that cigarette smoke reduced cell survival to 12%(almost complete cell death) after 6 hours. In contrast, the e-cigarette aerosol experimental group showed no significant decrease in cell viability. Despite continuous 6 hours of exposure, cell viability was similar to that of cells exposed to air alone. Even with such aggressive exposure, e-cigarette vapor did not reduce cell vitality.# p#pagination title #e#

4. E-cigarettes are being shouted by everyone in the world?

Countries have different regulatory policies and smooth international market circulation

[European Regulation]

In December 2013, the European Parliament, the Council of the European Union and the European Commission reached a consensus: (1) to regulate e-cigarettes as consumer products rather than as drugs unless the manufacturer chooses to regulate them as drugs;(2) if the manufacturer chooses to declare that e-cigarettes can help smokers quit smoking, a drug production license must be obtained;(3) as consumer goods, e-cigarettes must be used (Only e-cigarettes containing tobacco extracts) must meet the following requirements: meet quality and safety standards; the maximum nicotine content in tobacco extracts must not exceed 20 mg/ml; the EU regulations on banning advertising of tobacco products shall equally apply; New products Pre-market warnings stipulate that the volume of tobacco oil in disposable cigarette cores shall not exceed 2 ml, and the volume of e-cigarette oil sold separately shall not exceed 10 ml.

On February 26, 2014, the European Parliament passed the "Tobacco Products Directive (TPD)", the revised text, and will take effect from May 2014. Member states have a two-year transition period, and the ratification text will be officially implemented in member states on May 20, 2016.

So far, all e-cigarette products imported to European countries have been circulated in an orderly manner in European countries in strict accordance with the requirements of the TPD agreement.

[Regulation in the United States]

As early as 2009, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) once prevented e-cigarettes from entering the U.S. market. The main e-cigarette brands, NJOY and SMOKINGEVERYWHERE, refused to accept and filed a lawsuit against the FDA. In the end, the FDA lost the case, and the sales of various brands of e-cigarettes have also since entered the fast lane of development in the United States. The U.S. e-cigarette market and population have the largest number in the world.

At present, the U.S. FDA has adopted age-limit measures for the supervision of e-cigarettes, prohibiting the sale of e-cigarette products to minors, and requires e-cigarettes entering the U.S. market to declare that the product meets public safety standards, and that product ingredients, packaging, advertising, etc. need to meet the requirements before obtaining FDA marketing approval. Therefore, e-cigarettes have gone through the earliest ban on sales in the United States to the present licensing sales stage. Even organizations such as the FDA have no longer proposed banning the sale of e-cigarettes.

[Japanese Regulation]

In Japan, e-cigarette products containing nicotine cannot be sold in Japan unless a drug is approved. Nicotine-free products can be legally sold as consumer goods. There is no specific legislation in areas such as labeling and advertising, but suppliers must comply with rules for pharmaceuticals or consumer products. Individuals are also allowed to import products containing nicotine for use. Restrictions on use in public places are under discussion, but there are no immediate plans for large-scale changes to e-cigarette regulations.

According to incomplete statistics, in these countries or regions, e-cigarette products are relatively popular and allowed to be sold or imported. Such as Indonesia, Canada, Germany, Switzerland, Iceland, Czech Republic, Estonia, Germany, Israel, Italy, Republic of Korea, Latvia, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Russia, Tajikistan, Ukraine, United Kingdom, United States, Finland, Australia, Belgium, Denmark, France, New Zealand, Sweden.

Of course, due to the different actual conditions of various countries, some countries are cautious about e-cigarette products, and eventually developed from banning sales to liberalizing sales, such as Indonesia and Switzerland. They learned that Thailand, which has the strictest supervision, at the earliest, even smoking may face imprisonment, and now they are studying whether to release or allow it.

5. There is no quality and safety guarantee for e-cigarettes?

Industry standards have long been implemented and promulgated, and national mandatory standards are being formulated

As an emerging product, e-cigarettes have only developed for 15 years, and policy guidance and industry norms are constantly improving. Many people are extremely concerned about its production quality and product ingredients. At present, 90% of the world's e-cigarettes are produced in China. China is the earliest birthplace of e-cigarettes in the world, the largest production base and exporter, and has the largest number of e-cigarette intellectual property rights in the world. To export China's e-cigarette products to these countries, they must comply with the safety production standards of the exporting countries. It can be said that the quality of the products is guaranteed, otherwise it will not be possible to create so many advantages among the world's e-cigarettes. In China, is there any quality and safety guarantee for e-cigarettes?

In 2015, the Shenzhen Municipal Market Supervision and Administration Bureau issued and implemented the "General Technical Requirements for Electronic Cigarette Aerosol Products", which requires raw materials for e-cigarette cigarette oil to comply with national standards. For example, edible alcohol should comply with the provisions of GB 10343, propylene glycol should comply with the provisions of GB 29216, glycerol should comply with the provisions of GB/T 13206, and cigarette flavors should comply with the provisions of YC/T 164. Food flavors should comply with the provisions of GB 30616, and plant extracts should comply with the provisions of GB 2760. In terms of physical and chemical indicators, it is clearly stated that the nicotine (nicotine) content must be less than 24 mg. Moreover, this standard further clarifies the testing methods for various product quality indicators, strictly protecting the health and safety of smokers.# p#pagination title #e#
 
In December 2017, the Electronic Cigarette Industry Committee of China Electronics Chamber of Commerce issued and implemented the group standards of the "General Specifications for Electronic Cigarette Atomization Equipment Products" and "Specifications for Electronic Cigarette Atomization Liquid".

Members of the standards expert review team are from China Electronics Technology Standardization Institute, AQSIQ Defective Product Recall Center, China Standardization Institute, China Quality Certification Center, China Quality Inspection Press, etc.

This standard respectively stipulates the general safety requirements, finished product requirements, test methods, labels, logos, packaging, transportation, storage, after-sales service and other requirements for e-cigarette atomizing liquid products and atomizing equipment products. For example, electronic cigarette lithium batteries and control circuit boards must be protected by over-charging and over-discharging. The atomizer cannot overflow at any angle after normal filling of atomizing liquid; In terms of health conditions, it is also clearly required that the concentration of nicotine (nicotine) in the aerosol solution should not exceed 24 mg.

In terms of industry management by national ministries and commissions, as early as December 28, 2016, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology issued an industry standard formulation plan for the "Lithium-ion Batteries and Battery Packs for Electronic Cigarettes", which was officially released and entered the opinion collection stage in July 2018., the standard will be released soon.

At the same time, last year, the National Standardization Administration Committee also took the lead in formulating and drafting the national standard plan "Electronic Cigarettes" and "Gas Chromatography for the Determination of Nicotine, Propylene Glycol and Glycerol in Electronic Cigarettes", of which "Electronic Cigarettes" are also a national mandatory standard. The so-called mandatory standards are standards that are implemented within a certain range through mandatory means such as laws and administrative regulations. They have legal attributes, which means that enterprises must strictly implement them. The two national standards are now also in the approval stage and will be officially released soon.

Judging from the experience of European and American countries in promoting e-cigarettes and the results of health testing, e-cigarettes are also an effective tool to reduce harm as long as they are properly regulated. They are not a scourge as rumored by the outside world. The health conditions are also controllable.

China's natural advantage in global e-cigarette production benefits from its advantages in labor costs, technology and integrated supply chains. China e-cigarette manufacturers are the owners of most intellectual property rights in the industry, with a total of more than 20,000 intellectual property rights. With the right time and place, China's e-cigarettes have its own absolute international trade competitive advantage in terms of foreign exchange through exports. Tony Aboud, president of the American Electronic Cigarette Association, also said with shame at the U.S. 301 investigation hearing that e-cigarettes were originally invented by China in 2003, and many subsequent development and innovations also came from China, so the idea that American technology was transferred to China is not quite true. rdquo;

It can be proudly said that China's e-cigarettes have given China a long face in the trade war and represent a new image of upgrading China's manufacturing industry. If we fail to cherish it, it is very likely that this hard-won advantage in the international market will face collapse. More China production companies will have to relocate to Southeast Asian countries, and the competitiveness of e-cigarettes made in China will no longer exist.

Therefore, we must have sufficient analysis and demonstration before we can draw conclusions on our understanding of e-cigarettes. We must not rashly conclude it because of the individual chaos caused by the temporary gap in market management. When necessary, we must refer to foreign classification supervision and age-limited sales. Government departments should encourage China companies to participate more in international competition, increase export trade, and give China manufacturing a stronger voice in the international arena.