E-cigarettes : vaping could save the lives of 6 million Americans

REDPIXEL/epictura

Published the 05.10.2017 at 08: 00

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Let go of the cigarette, adopt the vapoteuse. This gesture would save many lives, according to a study published in the journal Tobacco Control. The work shows that the general transition from smoking tobacco to electronic cigarettes could reduce a quarter of the deaths related to smoking in the United States by 2100. This represents 6.6 million deaths averted.

The debate on the possible toxic effects of the electronic cigarette is still not settled, even if a number of specialists point out that its dangerousness is lower than that of tobacco. Taking into account this caution, the authors of this work has been delivered to the projections according to two scenarios.

At least 1.6 million lives saved

In the most optimistic scenario, they started from the assumption that the risks associated with electronic cigarettes accounted for 5 % of those in the tobacco, and that only a minority of people would continue to smoke “traditional” way by 2026.

In this hypothesis, the authors of the study estimate that 6.6 million deaths could be avoided by 2100 in the United States. This represents a quarter of the deaths expected to occur (26.1 million) if the situation remains as it is today, where, in the U.s., 19 % of men and 14 % of women smoke.

In the pessimistic scenario, the authors started from the assumption that the risks associated with electronic cigarettes accounting for 40 % of those of tobacco. In this case, it is 1.6 million lives that would be saved by 2100.

More and more followers

The use of the electronic cigarette divides scientists and specialists of the fight against smoking. Its detractors fear that his image safest attracts a new generation of smokers, and that it is a gateway to tobacco.

Its defenders believe, instead, that, regardless of the risks via the inhalation of vapors of liquids containing nicotine, it is still infinitely less harmful than tobacco.

The electronic cigarette is more and more followers : it is estimated that its number of users in Europe to seven million. According to the world health Organization (WHO), tobacco kills half of its consumers, that is, seven million people per year in the world (including nearly one million exposed to secondhand smoke).