Vaping or smoking tobacco? Doctors put the cry in the sky with electronic cigarettes.

The new fashion of smoking water vapor, which has led to the opening of hundreds of specialized stores, is assuming a regulatory role, both for doctors and for merchants, which has become the legal vacuum of this new form of smoking. The ‘vapers’ say it is healthier than smoking tobacco.

What is it that they smoke on the street, in theaters, in coffee shops and even in the doors of hospitals? The new fashion of smoking steam with aromas provokes less social rejection than traditional tobacco and is gaining adherents as the days go by and, most importantly, as there is still no regulation in this regard.

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“Electronic cigarettes are not absolutely healthy, but they do not have to be” The electronic cigarette makes the drugs have less effect, according to a California study The doctors ask to homogenize the aggressions: “In the public is crime, not in the private” The WHO asks to prohibit the use of electronic cigarettes in closed establishments But those days so ‘idyllic’ have time counted. A few weeks ago, the government vetoed any use of tobacco and its derivatives in public places. Thanks to this measure, electronic cigarettes can not be used in certain enclosed public spaces, such as transport or health or education centers, as agreed by the Ministry of Health and the communities last December, but also in some outdoor spaces free of schools, hospitals or health centers, as is already the case with tobacco.

With the new standard, electronic cigarettes leave the legal vacuum in which they were to pass to be covered by the law of snuff, to create the category of “devices susceptible to release nicotine and similar products.” The limitations of these devices are less restrictive than those that apply to tobacco, but they go in the same line: their sale to minors is prohibited and their use is limited.

Do they help to stop smoking?

The English PRT considers a “mistake” that the European Commission allows in the new European tobacco directive approved last week that producers of electronic cigarettes may choose to market these products as medical products, when still there is no data on how they can affect the substances they contain to the health of their consumers. In its statement, collected by Vozpópuli, this scientific society, which represents more than 20,000 primary care professionals throughout Spain, has expressed its rejection of this rule and warns that the “few” studies available so far know that some of these devices carry harmful substances.

The answer by the National Association of Vapeadores (ANEV) has not been made wait. This same Friday they sent a statement in which they expressed their opinions on the matter. In this way, they say that “there are numerous reports made by institutions of enormous prestige that show that electronic cigarettes are clearly a less harmful alternative to tobacco”. With his words “openly disagree” with some of the messages that are being disseminated about how harmful or not this type of cigarette is.

egún, Pedro Cátedra, president of ANEV, “one of the parameters defended by these groups is that the components and effects of the electronic cigarette on health are not sufficiently investigated, and this is not the case at all”. In this sense, this association has cited a study conducted by the University of East London “which has shown that 90% of smokers who have participated have found an alternative to tobacco thanks to the use of electronic cigarettes.”

He also referred to an article in the magazine The Lancet, “whose authors defend the incomparable lower toxicity of the e-cigarette against tobacco and claim that its regulation as a consumer product could help public administrations to save huge investments in specific treatments to quit smoking”.

Risk for restarting ex-smokers

The doctors, who show the concern that this issue implies, remember that if the producer of these cigarettes choose to market them as tobacco products may continue selling in commercial establishments, with “the risk that this entails for the restart of habit in ex-smokers and as a new entry point to nicotine consumption among the youngest ones “.

Public health experts fear that these products, which have recently gained popularity among teenagers and young adults, can serve as a gateway to tobacco consumption for those who have never smoked, and the possible risk that inhaling the vapor that these cigarettes can inhale .

In fact, just walk down the street to see that the number of steam smokers is growing exponentially. The shops, which are paradoxically found in some places door to door with traditional tobacconists, offer a wide variety of this new type of tobacco of the 21st century. However, despite the widespread proliferation, their prices scare. The sale price of the electronic cigarette in Spain can vary, depending on the quality of the cigarette, the number of small bottles of liquid and its origin, between 25 and 80 euros.

“It is quite significant that the Association of Vapeadores is happy with this Directive, since it does not enter into restrictions for these products and what regulates seems to be in accordance with what they wanted,” said Ana María Furió, coordinator of the Group of Approach to Smoking (GAT) of semFYC.

A business that crosses borders

The ANEV also recalled the case of Italy, where vaping has been common for 10 years, and “no deaths have been linked to the use of electronic cigarettes.” Even in France, a large group of pulmonologists have publicly expressed their support for the electronic cigarette as an alternative to tobacco, “he said.