With production increasing everyday, the debate around e-cigarettes is hotting up. On the one hand, they can save lives. On the other, there are those who (correctly) point out that we need to be doing more research before we hail the e-cigarette as the second coming in health science.

The BBC reports that there are 100,000 deaths associated with smoking in the UK every year, and more than five million worldwide. In the face of these stats, it’s really hard to say that e-cigarettes (which are nothing but vapourised nicotine) are a bad idea. Robert West, professor of health psychology at University College London, told delegates at the 2013 E-Cigarette Summit at London’s Royal Society that “literally millions of lives” could be saved with e-cigarettes.

The big question, and why we’re here, is whether that goal can be realised and how best to do it, and what kind of cultural, regulatory environment can be put in place to make sure that’s achieved. I think it can be achieved but that’s a hope, a promise, not a reality.

The force of two arguments stand in the way of e-cigarette success: the ‘normalisation’ argument, and the ‘unintended effects’ argument.

The normalisation argument holds that if e-cigarettes succeed massively without any regulatory frameworks, smoking would become a regular thing just like eating, thus introducing children at an earlier age. The simple reply to this argument is offered by researcher, Dr Jacques Le Houezec: “Every adolescent tries something new, many try smoking. I would prefer they try e-cigarettes to regular cigarettes.”

The unintended effects argument is powered by the World Health Organisation, who claim that we shouldn’t use e-cigarettes until they are deemed safe. They said the potential risks “remain undetermined”. (But normal cigarettes, that’s totally cool.)

This, again, is answered by research, which found that rats were unaffected by long-term nicotine inhalation. A study showed that after they inhaled nicotine for two years, there were no harmful effects. This was found in a 1996 study before e-cigarettes were on the market, a study Dr Le Houezec said was reassuring.

[Source : BBC]