The Academy of Medicine reassures the safety of electronic cigarettes

The Academy of Medicine claims that the epidemic of pulmonary attacks in the United States should not call into question this tool for aid for smoking weaning.

48 dead, 2291 hospitalizations. The epidemic of serious pulmonary pathologies that has been touches for several months vapers in the United States has sowed a panic. On Thursday, the French Academy of Medicine published a press release to remedy this "crisis of confidence". The wise men insist on "proven advantages" and recall the "unduly alleged disadvantages of electronic cigarettes".

Since June 2019, strange cases of pulmonary damage has multiplied in the United States in young vapers, especially in Texas, California and Illinois. The American health authorities quickly focused their suspicions on the electronic cigarette ... before backtracking.

They are now leaning for a misuse of the object. The analyzes show that most patients have used liquids containing THC (main psychoactive molecule of cannabis) and vitamin E oil, purchased on the black market, probably frelated. A brand, Dank Vapes, is frequently cited.

Crisis of confidence

We must "not confuse the harmful container with the toxicity of the content", recalls the Academy of Medicine. "This crisis of confidence could cause the death of thousands of smokers while tobacco kills half of its faithful consumers," she worries. According to a BVA survey carried out for the Pro-Vapotage Sovape association in September, three out of five French people now think that vaping is at least as dangerous as smoking, in reverse of scientific consensus. "You shouldn't be mistaken for enemy!" Said the press release.

"This crisis of confidence could cause the death of thousands of smokers while tobacco kills half of its faithful consumers."

-National Medicine Academy

Smokers who plan to switch to electronic cigarettes, "must not hesitate", however, recommends the institution, stressing that it is "established that the vaporette is less dangerous than cigarettes". In addition, this product is better controlled in France than in the United States: "Electronic cigarettes fall under quality and safety standards, unlike the United States" which suffer from "insufficient" regulations.

According to the Academy, the effectiveness of vaping to quit smoking is no longer to be proven. The High Authority for Health said it in 2016, even indicating that the electronic cigarette could in some cases work better than other nicotine substitutes. And in June 2019, a France’s public health study showed that at least 700,000 smokers won vaping.

"Vaping consists in inhaling vapors created by the high temperature heating of a liquid inside the electronic cigarette. Liquids most of the time contain nicotine. On the other hand, they do not include many dangerous substances found in tobacco, such as tar (carcinogenic) or carbon monoxide (factor of cardiovascular disease). But the steam contains fine particles which penetrate into the lungs. There are "many potentially toxic substances", had also concluded a report by American Academies of Sciences published in 2018.

Admittedly, filling your lungs with tens or even hundreds of times a day with vaporized chemicals is certainly not trivial for health. No one asserts the opposite and that is why the electronic cigarette can in no case be recommended to a person who does not smoke. On the other hand, for ex-smokers: the risks of vaping are incomparable to those of smoking.

12/12/2019, by Le Figaro, Cécile Thibert. https://www.sante.lefigaro.fr/