CALL FOR DOCTORS, HEALTH CARE PROFESSIONALS AND SCIENTISTS IN SUPPORT OF ELECTRONIC CIGARETTES.
LLAMAMIENTO A DOCTORES, PROFESIONALES DE LA SALUD Y CIENTÍFICOS EN APOYO DEL CIGARRILLO ELECTRÓNICO
31 marzo, 2018
SŁOWO OD LEKARZY, PROFESJONALISTÓW OPIEKI ZDROWOTNEJ I NAUKOWCÓW DLA WSPARCIA PAPIEROSÓW ELEKTRONICZNYCH
1 abril, 2018
CALL FOR DOCTORS, HEALTH CARE PROFESSIONALS AND SCIENTISTS IN SUPPORT OF ELECTRONIC CIGARETTES.
As physicians and health professionals we see everyday patients who are severely affected by tobacco smoking, many of whom will eventually die or have their health severely affected despite our help and advice. Tobacco smoking remains the most serious public health issue in the world.
People smoke for the nicotine but die from the chemicals produced when tobacco is burned 1 . Unfortunately, currently available smoking cessation medications have limited efficacy and acceptability for the majority of smokers. However, we believe that there is a solution: the use of electronic cigarettes clearly has huge potential to help many smokers turn their backs on tobacco.
To this end, we strongly believe that ethically and scientifically speaking it is our responsibility to draw attention to the following:
- It is the combustion of tobacco and the 4000 chemical substances that are produced when smoking cigarettes that are harmful to health of smokers, not the nicotine.
- The dangers of electronic cigarettes are considerably lower than those of tobacco. From analysis of the constituents of e-cigarette vapour, e-cigarettes can be expected to be at least 95 to 99% safer than smoking tobacco cigarettes in terms of long-term health risks 2.
- The vapour exhaled from e-cigarette users is highly unlikely to be harmful to bystanders; nicotine concentrations in exhaled vapour are too low to have pharmacological effects on bystanders 3.
- Randomised controlled trials show that e-cigarettes are effective in smoking cessation 4 and studies of the use of e-cigarettes in real world settings show that they are more effective than other means for stopping smoking including Nicotine Replacement Therapy 5.
- It is estimated that for every one million people who switch from smoking to electronic cigarettes, some 6000 premature deaths a year would be averted 6.
E-cigarettes do not ‘renormalise smoking’ – ‘vaping’ is not smoking. In many countries the rise in e-cigarette use has been accompanied by a continued decline in tobacco sales and prevalence of smoking 7.
The characteristics of electronic cigarettes should always be compared to those of conventional cigarettes, and discussion about the absolute long-term safety of electronic cigarettes must be contrasted ethically and scientifically with the absolute certainty of the harmfulness of smoked tobacco.
Already estimated 29m consumers in Europe use e-cigarettes 8. But we believe that the individual and public health gains associated with electronic cigarette use are held back by misconceptions about the product.
In light of the numerous studies undertaken to date we – as health professionals – cannot remain passive in the face of the clear public health benefits of electronic cigarettes.
We therefore recommend that our colleagues actively learn more about electronic cigarettes as a new public health tool in the ongoing global health campaign against tobacco-related diseases.
We call on our colleagues to sign this declaration in support of the merits of electronic cigarettes based on scientific evidence and ethical debate.
Yours faithfully,
Group of professionals who support this statement.
If you agree with the M.O.V.E statement please click on the image below to add your support.
If you agree with the M.O.V.E statement please click on the button below to add your support.
Updated Bibliography:
PHE: E-cigarettes: an evidence update
PHE UPDATE: Evidence review of e-cigarettes and heated tobacco products 2018
RCP: Nicotine Without Smoke. Tobacco Harm Reduction.
1 Russell, M. A. Low-tar medium-nicotine cigarettes: a new approach to safer smoking (1976) BMJ 1 (6023) 1430-1433
2 Farsalinos, K. E., & Polosa, R. (2014). Safety evaluation and risk assessment of electronic cigarettes as tobacco cigarette substitutes: a systematic review. Therapeutic Advances in Drug Safety, 5(2), 67–86. doi:10.1177/2042098614524430
3 Hajek P, Etter J-F, Benowitz N, McRobbie H (2014) Electronic cigarettes: review of use, content, safety, effects on smokers, and potential for harm and benefit. Addiction.
4 McRobbie, H., Bullen, C., Hartmann-Boyce, J., & Hajek, P. (2014). Electronic cigarettes for smoking cessation and reduction. The Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, 12, CD010216. doi:10.1002/14651858.CD010216.pub2
5 Brown, J. et al (2014). Real-world effectiveness of e-cigarettes when used to aid smoking cessation: a cross-sectional population study. Addiction doi:10.1111/add.12623
6 West, R. B. J. (2014). Electronic cigarettes : fact and fiction. British Journal of General Practice, (September), 442–443.doi:10.3399/bjgp14X681253
7 West R, Brown J, Beard E. Trends in electronic cigarette use in England. Smoking Toolkit Study 140122. 2014.www.smokinginengland.info/latest-statistics
8 Vardavas, C.et al (2014). Determinants and prevalence of e-cigarette use throughout the European Union: a secondary analysis of 26 566 youth and adults from 27 Countries. Tobacco Control, 1–7. doi:10.1136/tobaccocontrol-2013-051394
34 Comments
At last! Someone who is fighting for us vapers. Thanks guys. We really appreciate it ?
So excited to see medicine join the cause let’s educate so we can see generations get saved from the evils of tobacco
This is absolutely fantastic. The vaping community and industry has needed this type of organization for a long time now. I will be doing everything I can to promote you guys. Keep up the good work!
You should include a call for Nurses to join your effort we are on the frontline of patient care and as such should be advocating for patient choice. The use of E Cigarettes or Vaping are far better for someone’s long term health than smoking.
Hi Pauline. Nice to read you. The MOVE manifesto is aimed to all health care professionals, so Nurses can support it. Thank you for your comment.
I’m a nurse and I have joined. I will be asking my colleagues to do the same. Many are afraid of the unknown- smokers themselves still, and afraid of the misinformation out there.
We, as members of the public, regularly meet health care professionals face to face. Would it
be possible to create a flyer type page, that we could printout and hand over at our next
consultation?
Vaping saved my life, I am very sick……, I am positive that it has changed my life…. I am so glad we are getting more and more people “behind” it….. There will always be that group with stories how bad vaping is, FIGHT FOR YOU VAPING RIGHTS against those groups…. (not litirally of course….) Greetings from the Netherlands….
Joost Visser
What about HCA’S
As a medical Biopathologist professional,and an active vaper i concur and endorse this very important initiative!well done
I can be very short….. Vaping changed my life….
I can breath again. Smoked for 20 years, tried multiple times to quit but never succeed. I started vaping with a cig-a-like, but when I got a second generation I never looked back to smoking….. Now, I am vaping without nicotine….
Greetings from the Netherlands, we need all the help we can get, there are people who want to bann ecigs.
Vaping saves lifes !!!!
As Joost. I smoked for 30 years a lot of cigarettes. Already 1 year and 6 months only the e-cigarette. And almost without nicotine. Feel myself much better.
I am a Psychiatric Nurse and a vapor that has been smoke free for almost five years. I applaud my fellow medical professionals for creating this initiative. E-cigarettes save lives!
40 year, 2 pack a day smoker (56 years old) and accidental ex-smoker because of vaping. Getting close to being 2 years completely smoke free. It is of the utmost importance to counteract the misinformation that is being promoted by misled Tobacco Control zealots. Please, please, if you actually care about public health – spread correct and objective information about this great alternative.
I am so pleased to see an initiative like M.O.V.E. come into existence.
Fantastic MOVE indeed! The studies are there, the results are there, we – real time successfully switched over to vaping folks – are there, yet BP/BT and the Authorities at Large speak otherwise, spreading disinformation galore!
Nice to see that folks with science behind are taking the right steps ~ we need to get organized ~ there’s no two ways about it. ***Vaping IS HEALTHIER than smoking ~ and we have the right to make that choice***
Thanks for your efforts.
As a person with asthma and COPD, the test results one year after I begain vaping were dramatic, far greater than any medication could do alone. Of course not smoking could have done even better but I have spent the last 30 years in a continual round robin of attempts to quit anymore. It had gotten to the point that I was so demoralized that I couldn’t withstand one more failed attempt to quit, so I’d given up on quitting.
Then I tried an ecig. That I could do. They were developed by ex-smokers or smokers. No wonder drug and tobacco companies are threatened by them, they should be. Drug companies want a permanently addicted smoker to their products.
The unholy alliance is with legislators and public health agencies that have a political agenda to keep the cash flowing from tobacco and drug companies, and ignoring the greater good for public health. If bans and regulations limit adult access to the only known product successful in preventing smoking releated diseases, then I hope my kids will sue them for the manslaughter of billions.
Excellent website – I have added your link to our directory at http://ecigdirectory.co.uk – we help people in the UK find a vape shop in their local area.
At last we have common sense on our side! All vapers have known the positive affects of e-cigs since that first morning we woke up without coughing our lungs out! We are proof they work, improved health sense of smell and taste. We are now non smokers! The only reason the bans are wanted is the worlds addiction to tobacco tax, and the big pharma company’s exploitation of our addiction to nicotine. Save vaping, save lives!
Power to the people…I commend your action. Medical professionals are truly starting to wake up and be informed because of your efforts. I see change happening.
Hurray for MOVE! Finally some medical professionals coming down on the RIGHT side of history! (As opposed to living in the past).
I had heard so much from my fellow “anecdote”s (smoked for 36 years, happy at 6 mgs of pomegranate flavored e liquid on a Generation 2 device….but I defend to the death any of my fellow vapers’ choices. Except for Big Tobacco cigalikes. We just don’t know what’s in those things, and consider the source. Only cigarettes and vaping leave the choice in your own hands, instead of wresting control of amount and method away from the consumer) stating their doctors had recommended and/or approved of their vaping, but I also used to hear the doctors/professionals were being intimidated by their Golden Age of Tobacco Control colleagues. Nice to see you speaking up! That’s how we’re going to win this.
My favorite quote, which I apply to vaping, is from Victor Hugo: Nothing succeeds like a good idea whose time has come. The dinosaurs will sink into the tar (yes, tar) pits…and for the record, shaming smokers was a lousy strategy that made me want to smoke more. Bet I’m not alone on that one, either.
36 year smoker, like nicotine, never intended to quit. Nonsmoking adult children got me an Ego-T. With that and 6mg pomegranate e liquid, I am content, and have been smokefree for 15 months.
So glad you guys are doing this. Vapers have wanted approval and help from the medical professionals for a long time and, especially with all the fear-mongering from special interests who don’t seem to care if smokers die, this is a fantastic opportunity to work together for the global good.
Let’s put an end to cigarettes – and all their corrupt hangers-on – forever.
Nothing succeeds like a good idea whose time has come. (Victor Hugo)
Whoops! So enthused I posted twice, and on two different days!
Better have a vape.
Great to see some common sense at last. We need your help, thank you for this website and its factual content!
I am a GP and vape. Can’t recommend it highly enough for giving up smoking.
This is so good to see. To get support from the medical profession is just what we need to enable present and future vapers live healthier lives. It is the only thing that has enabled me to quit a hideous 47 year habit.
Thank you all for your support ?
Id love to get in volved – Just let us know what we can do!!! the UK are ahead and the US are going to have to do someting since the UK has made e cigarettes part of a prescription for no smoking!!! So think about hwat tat means for big tobacco…. how could one company sell the disease and the cure.
t is actually a great and useful piece of information.
I am satisfied that you just shared this useful info with us.
Please keep us informed like this. Thanks for sharing.
This is a great resource and even better to see ‘professionals’ backing the vaping word, BUT, isn’t it about time you guys got together and started challenging the naysayers (ie the WHO, BMA Brussels, some media outlets etc, IN COURT?
Thank you, thank you, thank you….I used to be a 3 pack a day smoker. Now i am cigarette free for 3 years. No more morning concerts that wake up the neighbourhood and playing football with the kids without killing myself on a sprint of 2 meters. Oh, almost forgot, Being a chef it’s wonderfull to taste the food again as it is supposed to be.
Please keep this going.
Oke, sorry seemed difficult to get in, tried it a couple of times, no response, do some bullshit and it appears. Sorry again.
Now for my comment. 4th try.
I used to be a 3 pack a day smoker. Thanks to the electronic cigarette i am smoke free for 3 years now. Waking up in the morning without that horrible morning concert that wakes up the whole neighboerhood and i actually can play soccer with the kids again without killing myself doing it. Almost forgot, Being a chef, its increddible how different and much better the food tastes
We need all the support we can get because this is a live saver.
Thanks
Thanks to the electronic cigarette i quit smoking 3 years ago. I was a three pack a day smoker and was in a terrible shape. Now i feel great and am actually able to join the kids playing soccer without problems.
We need as much people as possible to get the world to switch. Witn this MOve it looks like we are actually getting somewhere.
Thanks people and keep it going.
mi intención es ver que es lo que ofrece el cigarrillo electrónico pero antes de pasarme a el estaria muy bueno que alguna persona pueda citar un estudio sobre esta afirmacion , realmente me estarian ayudando a mi y a muchas persona que nos interesa ver qeu cuando dicen algo esta avalado por un estudio ” la combustión del tabaco y de las 4000 sustancias
Vaping is the best thing since slice bread! Good bye cigarettes you will be a thing of the past.
Me Encanta esto!! carajo tanta desinformacion en internet poniendo titulos amarillistas y populistas sobre el cigarro electronico, sin un mero conocmiento
yo nunca Fume no probe jamas el tabaco viendo las 2 opciones en la mesa busque el vaping por que claro es ilogico meterse en una basura como el tabaco
Estoy viendo en mi cuerpo los cambio que pueda tener con el vaping y de momento todo esta perfecto, solo noto la garraspera en la garganta que soluciona bebiendo mas Liquidos probe tambien si esto me daba pesadillas al dormir ya que normalmente no consigo un sueño perfecto y pude dormir bien. dejando eso Me Alegra este Movimiento soy de Peru un vapeador recien inciado vapeo 0mg de nicotina falta mucha ayuda sobre la informacion hay mucha mala informacion que desprestigia el» Vaping»ojala esto cambie. Saludos a todos los Vapeadores Del mundo!