The e-cigarette was pushed centre stage
ahead of World No Tobacco Day, with doctors and policy experts urging
the UN's health agency to embrace the gadget as a life saver.
With
tobacco smoke claiming a life every six seconds, the tar-free,
electronic alternative could help prevent much of the cancer, heart and
lung disease and stroke caused by the toxins in traditional cigarettes,
the 50-odd experts wrote to World Health Organisation chief Margaret
Chan.
E-cigarettes "could be among the most significant
health innovations of the 21st century, perhaps saving hundreds of
millions of lives," the group said.
They urged
"courageous leadership" from the WHO in guiding global and national
approaches to e-cigarettes, which are banned in some countries like
Brazil and Singapore and face increasingly strict restrictions in other
countries amid uncertainty about their long-term health effects.
The
group fears the WHO plans to lump the battery-powered devices, which
release nicotine in a vapour instead of smoke and contain fewer toxins,
with traditional cigarettes under its tobacco control policy.
This would compel member countries to ban advertising and use of the gadgets in public places, and to impose sin taxes.
"It
would be unethical and harmful to inhibit the option to switch to
tobacco harm-reduction products" like e-cigarettes, said the letter, a
copy of which was given to AFP.
The WHO is working on recommendations for e-cigarette regulation, to be presented to a meeting of member governments in October.
But
it does so in a scientific vacuum on the device's long-term safety and
its true value as an aid to kicking the tobacco habit.
Some
fear its use and often unrestricted promotion could glamorise an
addictive habit, and hook non-smoking teenagers on nicotine.
Nicotine hooks, tar kills
An estimated seven million people in Europe alone use e-cigarettes, invented in China in 2003.
Addiction
specialist Gerry Stimson, an emeritus professor at University College
London who co-signed the letter to Chan, said they have been shown to
release "very, very fractional levels" of toxins compared to
conventional ones.
"People smoke for the nicotine and die of the tar," he told AFP in Paris.
"If
you separate the nicotine from the burning of vegetable matter...
people can still use nicotine but they're not going to die from
smoking."
If it listed e-cigarettes as a tobacco
product, the WHO would "preserve the position of cigarettes because it
makes it harder or more difficult or less desirable to use
e-cigarettes," he argued.
The group of epidemiologists,
oncologists, addiction experts and health policy specialists who signed
the letter included Nigel Gray, a member of the WHO's special advisory
committee on tobacco regulation, Michel Kazatchkine, a UN special envoy
for AIDS and "harm reduction" advocate, and African Medical Association
president Kgosi Letlape.
Jury still out
A
recent study of nearly 6,000 people who quit smoking in England between
2009 and 2014 found they were 60 times more likely to succeed using
e-cigarettes than nicotine patches or gum, or going cold turkey.
However,
a study in the Journal of the American Medical Association in March
said e-cigarettes "did not significantly predict quitting one year
later".
In this grey zone, US regulators have proposed
the first restrictions on its soaring $2 billion (1.5 billion-euro)
e-cigarette market, with a minimum age limit and health warning labels.
New York has banned them from restaurants, bars, parks, beaches and other public places.
EU lawmakers have agreed to allow countries to restrict e-cigarette sales to pharmacies.
The WHO says tobacco kills nearly six million people a year, and climbing.
On
its website, however, it says the world's estimated 1.3 billion smokers
should be "strongly advised" not to turn to e-cigarettes until proven
safe.
The nicotine in e-cigarettes is typically
contained in a propylene glycol liquid that is heated to create a vapour
inhaled like smoke.
Some e-liquids are free of nicotine, an addictive stimulant which can be toxic in large amounts.
The WHO would not comment on the contents of the letter.
"We
are... working with national regulatory bodies to look at regulatory
options as well as toxicology experts to understand more about the
possible impact of e-cigarettes... on health," the agency told AFP by
email.
To mark World No Tobacco Day on May 31, it urged
countries to raise tobacco taxes, saying a 50-percent increase would
reduce the number of smokers by 49 million within next three years and
save 11 million lives.
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