Monthly Archives: May 2014

Scientists say restricting e-cigarettes wrong

The smoking industry usually comes in for a lot of flak from all corners and when there’s a new innovation, it’s unusual to see anyone actually backing it. This is what happened with e-cigarettes, they were viewed with suspicion by many people and they’re quickly being banned in public spaces. This banning automatically gives people the impression that they’re obviously dangerous and so they get labelled along with normal cigarettes as a hazard.

Hookah pipes obviously share the same stigma. They’re smoking apparatus after all and even though there are now e-shisha, these are viewed with the same suspicion and there will obviously be a slow take up as people simply see them as another dangerous alternative to a standard shisha.

However scientists are taking a different stance. A letter signed by more than 50 researchers, urges the World Health Organisation to “resist the urge to control and suppress e-cigarettes”.

They go on to say that these new devices could potentially be a “significant health innovation”. But why would they take this stance?

Well many people are coming off normal cigarettes and on to these electronic versions because of the obvious health risks of smoking, and it appears using them really does help people. Nicotine is what people get addicted to, but the extra chemicals in the cigarette are what really does the damage. By getting rid of this aspect of smoking, there’s a really good chance that people’s health can be improved.

It’s obviously too soon to understand all of the health implications of e-cigarettes and therefore e-shisha, but one thing’s for sure, they’re now becoming mainstream and the more publicity they get, the more research there will be and everyone will benefit.