22nd Century Group Inc (XXII)

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E Cigarettes: Britain's Department of Health…

The below article appeared in the New York Times and also was in today’s Buffalo News edition.

British health officials on Wednesday reported the results of a government-funded study concluding that the use of electronic cigarettes can reduce the health risks of smoking by 95 percent and may also help smokers quit the habit.

The study, issued by the government agency Public Health England, also found little evidence that consumers who had never smoked before were adopting e-cigarettes in large numbers. Some researchers expressed concerns that young people would use the devices as a gateway to regular smoking.

It also said that any new regulations adopted in Britain should emphasize the device’s public health benefits.

The new report emphasized that e-cigarette use was not free of risks. But its findings may accelerate the use of electronic cigarettes in Britain. It also could affect a public debate in the United States over whether the devices represent a breakthrough in reducing the death toll exacted by cigarettes or a new vehicle to addict consumers to nicotine.

It has long been known that cancer-causing substances associated with cigarette smoking are released when tobacco burns — something that does not happen with an e-cigarette.
Nonetheless, some experts have argued that the vapor-heating process used in e-cigarettes may also produce carcinogens, and that smokers should be encouraged to stop smoking, rather than use alternative nicotine delivery systems.

In recent years, the Food and Drug Administration has worked to develop new regulations for e-cigarettes but has yet to complete them. While the designs of e-cigarettes vary, most devices heat a nicotine-containing fluid to create a vapor that users inhale.

The new report is the latest in a series of studies issued in recent years by British officials that have examined an evolving body of scientific data about e-cigarettes.

One of the study’s underlying aims was to clarify the public debate over e-cigarettes, Duncan Selbie, the chief executive of Public Health England, wrote in a foreword to the report.

“Many people think the risks of e-cigarettes are the same as smoking tobacco and this report clarifies the truth of this,” Mr. Selbie wrote. “In a nutshell, best estimates show that e-cigarettes are 95 percent less harmful to your health.”

Dr. Neal L. Benowitz, a professor at the University of California, San Francisco, said that British researchers had been more optimistic than some of their American counterparts about the potential of e-cigarettes. But he said that there was still a lack of compelling evidence to demonstrate how the devices could best be used to help smokers quit.

In the report, the agency encouraged regulators to view e-cigarettes as a low-cost means to reduce smoking in poor populations, where it is prevalent.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/20/business/british-study-says-electronic-cigarettes-curb-smoking-risks.html