E-cigarettes increase harm and should be discouraged

Pamela Ling, MD, MPH, Director of the UCSF Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education, along with Stanton Glantz, PhD, have published a new comment in Nature Human Behaviour that examines the growing evidence on the negative health and public health impacts of e-cigarettes.

 

In "E-cigarettes increase harm and should be discouraged", Ling and Glantz show that current evidence does not support the claim that e-cigarettes reduce tobacco-related harm. They discuss how e-cigarettes are associated with substantial disease risks, are not effective as real-world smoking cessation tools when used as consumer products, and contribute to youth nicotine addiction.

 

Ling and Glantz call for stronger policies against the promotion of e-cigarettes. They also urge members of the scientific and public health communities to stop minimizing the dangers of nicotine use or claiming that e-cigarettes have a role in promoting health.