According to the High Council of Public Health, “the potential benefits and risks” of the use of electronic cigarettes “are not established so far.”.
Le Monde
Electronic cigarette should not be proposed as a tobacco withdrawal tool by health professionals, lack of recoil on its profits and risks, says the High Council of Public Health (HCSP), In a review Published Tuesday, January 4 .
“Health professionals who accompany a smoker in a smoking weaning approach must use drug or non-effectiveness treatments”, such as patchs or nicotine gums, judges HCSP.
According to this advisory body, “evidence-based knowledge is insufficient to propose [electronic cigarettes] as a smoking cessation aid in the management of smokers by health professionals”. “The potential benefits and risks of the medium or long-term use of electronic cigarettes with or without nicotine, are not established so far,” continues HCSP, which wants studies to be conducted on the subject.
However, the HCSP does not completely condemn these products, which can “be used outside [or in addition] of care as part of the care system”. Even if we do not know precisely the relationship between their benefits and their risks, it is not excluded that “these products used out of health system can be assisted for certain consumers and thus contribute to improving their health.”.
Fine particles whose long-term effects are ignored
This opinion replaces A precedent Dated the 2016 , in which the advisory body felt that the electronic cigarette could be considered as a “smoking cessation help tool” for people who want to stop their tobacco consumption.
The electronic cigarette emits, by heating a liquid composed of propylene glycol or glycerol, a steam generally charged with nicotine and aromas. It does not release tar or carbon monoxide, the two most harmful elements of tobacco smoke that cause cancers and cardiovascular diseases. But the steam contains fine particles whose long-term effects are not known.
The question divides the medical community. On the one hand, the health authorities are very cautious: in July, the World Health Organization (WHO) had repeated that electronic cigarettes could be “dangerous” and had to be regulated.
But this prudence is found guilty by the addiction specialists. The latter emphasize that the electronic cigarette is infinitely less dangerous than tobacco and that, to choose, the first is preferable to the second.