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The Evidence of Electronic Cigarette Risks Is Catching Up With Public Perception.

S. Glantz

Published 2019 in JAMA Network Open

ABSTRACT

The advent of electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes), devices that deliver a nicotine aerosol to the lungs by heating a nicotine-containing liquid rather than burning tobacco, has triggered an intense debate over their value for reducing the harm tobacco products cause. The optimists see e-cigarettes delivering nicotine without all the combustion byproducts of conventional cigarettes,1 whereas others point out that e-cigarettes still deliver an aerosol of ultrafine particles and other toxicants that carry substantial health risks.2 A key to realizing the optimists’ vision for e-cigarettes is smokers switching completely from cigarettes to e-cigarettes. Because perceived risks play an important role in selecting tobacco products, Huang and colleagues3 examined how perceptions of the risk of e-cigarettes compared with cigarettes have changed from 2012 to 2017 using 2 national surveys, the Tobacco Products and Risk Perceptions Surveys they conducted and the Health Information National Trends Surveys (HINTS). They found that the fraction of respondents who believed that e-cigarettes were less harmful than cigarettes decreased from approximately 45% in 2012 to approximately 35% in 2017, whereas the fraction who thought they were about the same increased to approximately 45%. (These estimates combine the 2 surveys. The estimates of “about the same” in 2012 were very different in the 2 surveys, so are not listed here; the other results were more similar.) The fractions who thought e-cigarettes were more dangerous than cigarettes increased but remained low, at less than 10%. Huang and colleagues3 express concern that as fewer people view e-cigarettes as less harmful than cigarettes, fewer will be interested in switching from combustible cigarettes to e-cigarettes. Based on the evidence available in 2017, the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine concluded that “e-cigarettes pose less risk to an individual than combustible tobacco cigarettes.”4(p11) The report emphasized that at the time, no studies on the long-term health effects of e-cigarettes had been performed, which they recognized as a limitation. However, the data are catching up with public perception. Since the report was completed, evidence has started to emerge that e-cigarette users are at increased risk of myocardial infarction,5-7 stroke,6 and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and other respiratory diseases,8-10 controlling for smoking and other demographic and risk factors. Some of these risks approach those of smoking cigarettes. There is also emerging evidence that e-cigarettes deregulate biologically significant genes associated with cancer.11 Equally important, the risks of e-cigarette use are in addition to any risks of cigarette smoking, which means that dual users (people who continue to smoke cigarettes while using e-cigarettes) have higher risks of heart and lung disease than people who just smoke. This finding is particularly important because, contrary to the hopes of the e-cigarette optimists, about two-thirds of adult e-cigarette users are dual users (ie, continue to smoke). In addition, although 1 randomized clinical trial12 has shown that e-cigarettes improve cessation when used as part of a clinically supervised smoking cessation program that includes intensive counseling, as used in the population as a whole as a mass-marketed consumer product, e-cigarettes are associated with reduced odds of cessation.13 In addition, 80% of former cigarette smokers were continuing to use e-cigarettes 6 month later. Although not a direct health effect (in the same way that exposure to e-cigarette aerosol triggers pathophysiological processes that increase the risk of heart + Related article

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