Are e-cigarettes beneficial or cause harm? This is what experts say!

Zee Media Bureau

New York: For most people the topic of e-cigarette safety is of constant debate. Is it safer than normal cigarettes or is it more harmful? Does it induce the habit of smoking tobacco?

However, a new study has probably found the answer that would end the discourse.

A team of international tobacco control experts has found that use of e-cigarettes can reduce overall smoking as well as potentially decrease the mortality rates particularly arising out of cigarette smoking.

This means that e-cigarettes can help curb potential health risks and can in fact, provide more benefits than harm.

Not only that, but the study has also found that it can inherently aid in improving population health by reducing or completely eliminating the use of cigarettes, especially for those who want to quit smoking.

In the study, published online in the journal Addiction, seven top international tobacco control experts have prompted regulators at the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to have a broad "open-minded" perspective when it comes to regulating vaporised nicotine products, especially e-cigarettes.

The team synthesised much of the evidence published to date on e-cigarettes to suggest that use of these products can lead to reduced cigarette smoking overall with a potential reduction in deaths from cigarette smoking.

The team also warned that heavy regulation and taxation of e-cigarettes will counteract the benefit that these products can provide.

"We don't want to encourage e-cigarette use by youth and young adults who would not have otherwise smoked. However, the primary aim of tobacco control policy should be to discourage cigarette use while providing the means for smokers to more easily quit smoking, even if that means switching for some time to e-cigarettes rather than quitting all nicotine use," the researchers noted.

(With IANS inputs)