E-cigarettes ‘should not be used by non-smokers’

E-cigarettes ‘should not be used by non-smokers’

The message comes as part of a new health initiative to provide more information about vaping.

More than a dozen Jersey health professionals and organisations have signed up to a new consensus statement about the use of e-cigarettes.

The statement advises that e-cigarettes should only be used as a pathway to stopping smoking and should not to be used by non-smokers or children.

Dr Susan Turnbull, Jersey’s Medical Officer of Health, said: ‘Like many doctors I have had reservations about e-cigarettes since they came on the scene, knowing that it can take many years, or even decades, for the health consequences of something new like this to become apparent.

‘However, I do welcome and support this new consensus statement as a balanced and measured summary of what is known and can be said about where e-cigarettes appear to be positioned in terms of relative health risks to smokers, when compared with conventional smoking.

‘There does seem to be sufficient confidence now to be able to say that e-cigarettes pose a lower level of health risk to smokers than conventional smoking.

‘To be absolutely clear, if e-cigarettes have a useful role to play for public health purposes, it is for some smokers who may find them useful on their journey to stopping smoking. There is insufficient research evidence available yet to support any wider use, as their medium and long-term risks to non-smokers cannot be quantified.’

Martin Knight, the director of public health policy, added that as the majority of e-cigarettes contained nicotine – as well as a range of other substances – they ‘should not be used by non-smokers’.

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