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Survey stresses role of vaping in tobacco control

https://manilastandard.net/business/biz-plus/321405/survey-stresses-role-of-vaping-in-tobacco-control.html

Results of a first-of-its-kind survey in India highlight the potential of e-cigarettes as an additional option for tobacco control and how vaping can have a substantial impact on public health.

Peter Paul Dator, president of The Vapers Philippines, said the groundbreaking survey in India clearly shows that vaping helps smokers quit or reduce smoking.

“Its results are particularly relevant to the Philippines because like India, our country has a large number of smokers and a low smoking cessation rate. The Department of Health and other local policymakers should look at the evidence for e-cigarettes with an open mind and start making science-based decisions to help reduce smoking in the country,” said Dator.

Dator was referring to the interview-based survey involving 3,000 vapers aged 18 and older from eight of the largest metropolitan cities in India. The vast majority of respondents (71.3 percent) used e-cigarettes to quit (30 percent) or reduce (41.3 percent) smoking.

Similar results were observed in smokeless tobacco users. Most (79 percent) believe that e-cigarettes are less harmful than combustible cigarettes. Survey participants reported minimal side effects (cough, headache, dry mouth/throat) and some health benefits (improved general health, breathing, smell and taste) after they started vaping.

Around 81 percent of survey respondents were men and 19 percent women, with average age of 29 years. The majority (80 percent) were first exposed to nicotine through combustible cigarette smoking, SLT use or both.

Leading tobacco harm reduction expert Dr. Konstantinos Farsalinos and Indian researchers conducted the survey whose results were published on March 30, 2020 in Harm Reduction Journal.

Dator said that India and the Philippines face similar smoking-related public health challenges. The World Health Organization estimates that there are over 120 million smokers in India, accounting for almost 12 percent of the 1.1 billion smokers globally.

The 2016-2017 Global Adult Tobacco Survey revealed that India has the second-lowest quit rate among GATS countries surveyed at the end of 2017. It also showed that India has the second-largest tobacco consuming population in the world, estimated to be over 267 million, which includes at least 100 million tobacco smokers and over 199 million SLT users.

Dr. Farsalinos and his co-authors said that tobacco-related deaths in India are estimated to be over 1 million a year and are projected to rise to 1.5 million by 2020. They also pointed to the prevalence of smoking-related illnesses such as heart disease, lung cancer and chronic pulmonary obstructive disease in India.

Dator cited DOH data, which show that almost 88,000 Filipinos die from smoking-related diseases every year. Healthcare expenditures and lost income due to smoking-related sickness and premature death cost the country P188 billion ($4 billion) yearly.

These figures only cover four of more than 40 smoking-related diseases namely lung cancer, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, heart disease and stroke.

GATS found that there are currently 16 million Filipino adult smokers. “Like India, the Philippines has a very low smoking cessation rate of 4 percent. This dismal quit rate indicates the ineffectiveness of currently approved smoking cessation strategies in the country such as ‘quitting cold turkey’, counseling, and nicotine replacement therapy,” Dator said.

“We all know that the combustion in cigarettes is what is harmful to the health of smokers. The harm from smoking is caused primarily through the toxins produced by the burning or combustion of tobacco. By contrast, non-tobacco, non-smoked nicotine products such as e-cigarettes are considerably less harmful,” Dator said.

He cited the widespread agreement among organizations such as Action on Smoking and Health, Public Health England, Cancer Research UK, the Royal College of Physicians and the Royal College of General Practitioners that, on the basis of current evidence, e-cigarettes or vapes represent a significantly less harmful alternative to tobacco cigarettes for smokers who are unable or unwilling to stop using nicotine.

“The DOH should pay particular attention to how the study authors described India’s e-cigarette ban as a ‘missed opportunity’ and urged the Indian government to promote additional research and consider revising the regulatory framework if the evidence warrants it,” Dator said.

The Indian government banned the import, manufacture, sale, advertisement, storage and distribution of e-cigarettes in September 2019. According to Dator, India’s vaping ban is a tobacco control approach that other governments should not adopt.

“Such a retrogressive policy will be a major blow to smokers who have switched to vaping. It will likely push them to go back to smoking combustible cigarettes,” he said.

Canadian Tobacco and Nicotine Survey, 2019

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Prevalence of Electronic Cigarette Use and Its Determinants among 13-to-15-Year-Old Students in Greece

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Exposure to secondhand aerosol of electronic cigarettes in indoor settings

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Online Pro-Tobacco Marketing Exposure Is Associated With Dual Tobacco Product Use Among Underage US Students

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0890117120905231

Abstract

Purpose:

To understand the effect of pro-tobacco marketing on electronic cigarette and combustible cigarette dual use among US middle and high school students under 18 years of age.

Design:

Data were derived from the 2018 National Youth Tobacco Survey, an annual self-administered school-based cross-sectional survey.

Setting:

The survey was administered in public and private middle and high schools across the United States.

Participants:

The probability sample size was 15 238 middle and high school students with complete responses who were under 18 years of age during the study period.

Measures:

The study measured self-reported exposure to online combustible and electronic cigarette advertisements, dual use of combustible and electronic cigarettes during the past 30 days, exposure to the Real Cost antitobacco campaign advertisements, and other sociodemographic factors (eg, race/ethnicity, gender, and grade).

Analysis:

Logistic regressions were used to measure pro-tobacco marketing exposure and dual use as a function of pro-tobacco marketing exposure.

Results:

Descriptive analyses show that 59.0% of respondents were exposed to pro-tobacco online marketing, and 2.9% were dual users. Dual users (odds ratio [OR] = 1.73) and high school students (OR = 1.43) were more likely to report exposure to online pro-tobacco marketing.

Conclusions:

Findings indicate that a gap in electronic cigarette pro-tobacco marketing regulatory oversight may exist. Further policy action may be warranted to protect the public health of minors and other vulnerable populations who are most susceptible to pro-tobacco marketing.

Costs of vaping: evidence from ITC Four Country Smoking and Vaping Survey

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Teens unaware of ‘social’ smoking dangers

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Global smokers’ study criticised as biased

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The State of Smoking 2018

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Trajectories of E-Cigarette and Conventional Cigarette Use Among Youth

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