London (AFP) – Deborah Arnott, chief executive of the Action on Smoking and Heath (ASH) pressure group, said e-cigarettes could be a leap forward for public health but warned that not enough was known about their effects — and pointed out that the tobacco companies are snapping up the e-cigarette manufacturers.
“ASH thinks that e-cigarettes have significant potential. They are a lot less harmful than smoking. Clearly smokers find them attractive, primarily as a way of quitting and moving away from smoking, which they know will kill them,” she told AFP.
“But at the moment I think the jury’s out and these products need regulating because there’s a real concern that their safety and effectiveness is not guaranteed without regulation.
“The tobacco companies are moving in. For them it’s potentially a ‘Kodak moment’ because if everyone moved to e-cigarettes, they’d lose their market so they’ve got to be in there. A lot of the bigger e-cigarette companies have already been bought up.”
She warned: “If there are carcinogens in there, you won’t see an immediate effect but 10, 15, 20 years down the line, people will be dying from that.
“The development of e-cigarettes is definitely running ahead of the science.”
Electronic Cigarettes could save lives, conference told
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