Tens of thousands of lives could be saved every year if all British smokers switched from cigarettes to e-cigarettes, experts have said.
Researchers from University College London (UCL) estimated that for every million smokers who switch from tobacco to electronic cigarettes, over 6,000 premature deaths would be prevented each year in the UK.
There are around nine million British smokers and if they all switched to the nicotine vapour inhalers instead of the tobacco products they currently use, around 54,000 lives could be saved.
The experts said the reduced mortality rate even accounts for the possibility that e-cigarettes may carry an increased risk of death.
But in an editorial published in the British Journal of General Practice, Professor Robert West and Dr Jamie Brown from UCL’s Department of Epidemiology and Public Health argue that even though some toxins are present in the vapour from e-cigarettes, the concentrations are “very low”.
“In fact, toxin concentrations are almost all well below 1/20th that of cigarette smoke.”
They also rejected comments about e-cigarettes “re-normalising” smoking and the products acting as a “gateway” to smoking.
Source: Ella Pickover, Irish Examiner, 05/09/14
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