Electronic cigarettes: proceed with great caution

Excerpt

On 29 May 2014, 53 people, including scientists, clinicians and advocates, signed a letter¹ addressed to Margaret Chan, the Director General of the World Health Organisation (WHO). It sought to dismiss WHO’s known concerns about electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes) and, despite omitting any references to the scientific literature, the signatories hailed them as an innovation with potential to save many millions of lives. A slick campaign by a professional public relations firm ensured that the letter attracted extensive global publicity. The same day, British American Tobacco issued its own press release², making many of the same arguments, and arguing that, as a manufacturer of e-cigarettes, it should be viewed as part of the solution to smoking-related disease rather than, as the entire industry had become, a pariah excluded from discussions on smoking and health by the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control. …