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Tag: cigarettes

The Facts: Electronic Cigarettes

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By Tobacco Free Florida

Why Doctor Intervention is Important

  • Electronic cigarettes – also known as e-cigarettes, e-cigs, vape pens and vapes – have not been around long enough to determine their long-term health effects.
  • Studies have found harmful chemicals in some e-cigarettes. These substances include traces of metal, volatile organic compounds and nitrosamines, which are carcinogenic.1

 Not a Proven Cessation Tool

  • E-cigarettes are not approved quit aids by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (USFDA). There are seven USFDA-approved cessation aids and medications that are proven safe and effective when used as directed.2
  • Tobacco Free Florida offers free cessation services that can increase your patients’ chances of quitting by five times.3
  • These services provide free USFDA-approved nicotine replacement therapy, if medically appropriate and while supplies last.
  • Floridians who want to quit smoking are encouraged to find the cessation service that works best for them at tobaccofreeflorida.com.

Dual Use with Conventional Cigarettes

  • Approximately three out of four e-cigarette users continue to smoke conventional cigarettes as well, which is called “dual use.”4
  • Dual use is not an effective way to safeguard one’s health.5 Even people who smoke fewer than five cigarettes a day may show signs of early heart disease.6

 E-cigarettes and Youth

  • Monthly poison control calls about exposure to liquid nicotine have increased dramatically. In just a few years, calls per month increased from one to 215. 7
  • In Florida, the number of high school students who were current e-cigarette users tripled from 5.4 percent in 2013 to 15.8 percent in 2015.8
  • There is evidence that adolescents who use e-cigarettes are more likely to start smoking cigarettes. 9,10
  • Adolescent bodies are more sensitive to nicotine, and adolescents are more easily addicted than adults.11 Because the adolescent brain is still developing, nicotine use during adolescence can disrupt the formation of brain circuits that control susceptibility to addiction.12

For more information on how to help your patients quit tobacco, visit tobaccofreeflorida.com/healthcare-provider.

 

1 Cheng T. Chemical Evaluation of Electronic Cigarettes. Nicotine & Tobacco Research 2014;23,ii11–7. 23 May 2014.  http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24732157.
2 “Five Keys for Quitting Smoking.” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, n.d. Web.
3 Professional Data Analysts. “BTFF Tobacco Cessation Evaluation FY15 Synthesis Report.” 15 February  2015.
4 King, Patel, Nguyen, and Dube. Trends in Awareness and Use of Electronic Cigarettes among U.S. Adults, 2010 -2013 Nicotine Tob Res ntu191 first published online September 19, 2014 doi:10.1093/ntr/ntu191.
5 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “Transcript for CDC press briefing: CDC launches powerful new ads in “Tips From Former Smokers” campaign.” 26 March 2015. Web. Last Assessed 24 July 2015. http://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2015/t0326-tips.html.
6 U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The Health Consequences of Smoking — 50 Years of Progress: A Report of the Surgeon General. Atlanta: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, Office on Smoking and Health, 2014.
7 Chatham-Stephens, Kevin, et al. “Notes from the Field: Calls to Poison Centers for Exposures to Electronic Cigarettes — United States, September 2010–February 2014.” Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 04 Apr. 2014. http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm6313a4.htm?s_cid=mm6313a4_w.
8 Florida Youth Tobacco Survey (FYTS), Florida Department of Health, Bureau of Epidemiology, 2015.
9 Thomas A Wills, Rebecca Knight, James D Sargent, Frederick X Gibbons, Ian Pagano, Rebecca J Williams Longitudinal study of e-cigarette use and onset of cigarette smoking among high school students in Hawaii. Tob Control doi:10.1136/tobaccocontrol-2015-052705.
10 Coleman BN, Apelberg BJ, Ambrose BK, et al. Association between electronic cigarette use and openness to cigarette smoking among US young adults. Nicotine Tob Res. 2015; 17(2):212-218.
11 U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. How Tobacco Smoke Causes Disease: The Biology and Behavioral Basis for Smoking-Attributable Disease: A Report of the Surgeon General. Atlanta, GA: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, Office on Smoking and Health, 2010.
12 England, L. et al. Nicotine and the Developing Human: A Neglected Element of the E -cigarette Debate. Am J Prev Med. 2015 Mar 7. [Epub ahead of print].