17 | Jan | 2016 | ~Vapelounge~

UK’s medicines licensing agency has cleared the way for a brand of e-cigarette to be marketed as a quit-smoking aid.

“The evidence so far suggests e-cigarettes are far safer than tobacco cigarettes, and are likely to have health benefits for smokers who can’t otherwise quit” – George Butterworth, Cancer Research UK

British American Tobacco, the makers of the e-Voke, won approval from the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), meaning the device could eventually be prescribed on the NHS in the same way as other Nicotine Replacement Therapy.

“The MHRA has licenced this product as a medicine, which removes a barrier to it being prescribed by medical practitioners as part of a quit attempt, like other Nicotine Replacement Therapy,” said George Butterworth, tobacco control manager at Cancer Research UK.

While early research suggests that e-cigarettes could prove a worthwhile aid in the fight to eradicate the single biggest preventable cause of cancer worldwide – opinion is still divided on their long-term safety.

In the year up to April 2015, two thirds of people who used them in tandem with the health service’s Stop Smoking Service successfully quit, according to the NHS. And results from the Cancer Research UK-funded Smoking Toolkit Study have shown that e-cigarettes have become the most popular quitting aid in England.

“The evidence so far suggests e-cigarettes are far safer than tobacco cigarettes, and are likely to have health benefits for smokers who can’t otherwise quit,” said Butterworth.

But some expert groups – including The British Medical Association and The Royal College of GPs – still hold reservations, particularly around the possibility of the devices being prescribed as medicines on the NHS.

A further concern lies with the question of who would profit from the wide-scale take-up of prescribed e-cigarettes, with e-Voke itself produced by British American Tobacco.

Cancer Research UK’s George Butterworth, said: “It’s concerning that all of the currently licenced e-cigarettes are owned by tobacco companies, an industry responsible for a product which kills more than 100,000 people in the UK every year.

“We hope that independent e-cigarette companies apply to the licencing process so it isn’t Big Tobacco profiting from a solution to a problem it has caused.”

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A new US study claims that smokers who don’t use e-cigarettes are more likely to quit smoking than those who use them.

“Despite being wide-ranging the paper’s conclusions are tentative and sometimes incorrect.” –Professor Linda Bauld, Cancer Research UK

But experts have been quick to point out the numerous limitations of the study, with the conclusions being at best preliminary or at worst “grossly misleading” according to Professor Peter Hajek, Director of the Tobacco Dependence Research Unit, Queen Mary University of London.

Researchers from the University of California, San Francisco, reviewed the findings of 38 e-cigarette use studies from around the world and concluded that smokers who use the “vaping” devices were 28 per cent less likely to successfully give up smoking tobacco compared to those not using e-cigarettes.

The contested results are in direct conflict with many of the claims made by tobacco-control scientists and advocates, as well as previous reviews that suggest e-cigarettes are safer than conventional tobacco cigarettes and may lead to cessation.

“The irony is that quitting smoking is one of the main reasons both adults and kids use e-cigarettes, but the overall effect is less, not more, quitting,” co-author Stanton Glantz said in a statement issued by the university.

“While there is no question that a puff on an e-cigarette is less dangerous than a puff on a conventional cigarette, the most dangerous thing about e-cigarettes is that they keep people smoking conventional cigarettes.”

However, Professor Linda Bauld, Cancer Research UK’s prevention champion, said: “Despite being wide-ranging the paper’s conclusions are tentative and sometimes incorrect.”

She went on to explain that the studies included in the review were too different in design to directly compare and many don’t include adequate measures of use or cessation.

Further, some of the devices they included are no longer available on the market, some relevant literature is excluded and the way some of the studies are set up means they miss the people who have succeeded in quitting using e-cigarettes.

“We should be very cautious about assuming that this review tells us that e-cigarettes don’t help smokers quit. Other evidence suggests they do – and this is particularly relevant for the UK where smoking rates have continued to decrease as e-cigarette use has increased,” she concluded.

References

Kalkhoran, S. Glantz, SA. “E-Cigarettes And Smoking Cessation In Real-World And Clinical Settings: A Systematic Review And Meta-Analysis”. N.p., 2016. Web. 15 Jan. 2016. DOI:10.1016/S2213-2600(15)00521-4