Saturday, 21 October 2017 08:48

By Dr Farsalinos

Shortly after a study in Tobacco Control identified a very low cancer risk from e-cigarettes compared to tobacco cigarettes, a new study by Italian researchers tried to calculate the risk from e-cigarette exposure and compared with smoking. The authors used measurements of particle size and mass distribution; however, and unlike the scientifically flawed argument that only particle number and size matters, they calculated the risk using the composition of the aerosol and particles using literature data. E-cigarettes were found to expose to about 100-times higher particulate matter-10 μg (PM 10 ) compared to smoking. The fanatic supporters of the particulate matter theory (which is a total misinterpretation of science and should be considered gossip rather than serious scientific debate) would support that e-cigarettes will increase the cancer risk by 100-fold compared to smoking. However, the careful assessment of the aerosol composition of e-cigarettes showed that the cancer risk for vapers is about 5 orders of magnitude lower compared to smoking. To be exact, they identified a 57,000-fold (thousand) lower Excess Lifetime Cancer Risk (ELCR) from vaping compared to smoking. The authors expand by saying that: “… the ELCR evaluated for the mainstream aerosol of ECs results lower to the target limit reported by EPA and WHO. WHO, in fact, reports an ELCR of 1×10-5 as target value (Commission on Environmental Health, 1996), while EPA considers a target risk range of 10-6 to 10-4 to be ‘‘safe and protective of public health” but ‘‘even risks slightly greater than 1×10-4 may be considered adequately protective” under specific conditions (EPA, 1991b).”

I am certain this study will generate ZERO publicity. This is very common for studies showing anything positive on e-cigarettes. After so many studies published in the past few years, smokers still believe that e-cigarettes as similarly or more harmful than smoking. Sad for public health…