Public Health England should stop promoting electronic cigarettes and vaping

Public Health England (PHE) must stop promoting vaping as an alternative option to cigarettes, suggesting that is 95% safer than smoking, and instead respond to the actual health emergency in young people. Vaping and smoking are both much more dangerous than abstinence, which should be the message from all responsible bodies. This is the key message in a recent paper from a number of eminent paediatric respiratory physicians based in UK. Bush A et al [Lancet Resp Med 2020;8(3):231–233. https://ift.tt/34Lzhyf(19)30468-0] have reviewed the recent evidence surrounding the use of electronic cigarettes and the practice of vaping. The Archivist was shocked to read some recent data from the United States of America published in 2019 which found that 40·5% of 12th-grade students (17–18 years) have tried e-cigarettes, 35·1% within the past year and 25·4% in the previous month. The corresponding figures for 2017 are 15·0%, 18·8%, and 11·0%....

from Archives of Disease in Childhood current issue https://ift.tt/2wNKLVt