E-cigarettes a 'major public health concern': US surgeon general

Yahoo – AFP, Kerry Sheridan, December 8, 2016

About one in six US high school students say they have used e-cigarettes
in the past month (AFP Photo/SPENCER PLATT)

Miami (AFP) - E-cigarette use is exploding among young people and is now "a major public health concern," the US Surgeon General warned Thursday, sparking disagreement from experts in Britain where the devices are seen more favorably.

The battery-powered devices heat a liquid containing nicotine into a vapor that is inhaled, and some experts worry that a new generation of smokers is becoming addicted.

About one in six US high school students say they have used e-cigarettes in the past month.

"E-cigarette use has increased considerably in recent years, growing an astounding 900 percent among high school students from 2011 to 2015," said Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, in a preface to the report.

"These products are now the most commonly used form of tobacco among youth in the United States, surpassing conventional tobacco products, including cigarettes, cigars, chewing tobacco, and hookahs."

Murthy said the dangers of e-cigarettes include nicotine, which "can cause addiction and can harm the developing adolescent brain."

For young people, nicotine use in any form is unsafe, said the report, which was written and reviewed by more than 150 experts.

It also said the secondhand aerosol that is exhaled into the air by e-cigarette users can expose others to potentially harmful chemicals.

But Murthy admitted to "gaps in scientific evidence" when it comes to the dangers of e-cigarettes.

"For example, the health effects and potentially harmful doses of heated and aerosolized constituents of e-cigarette liquid -- including solvents, flavorants, and toxicants -- are not completely understood," he said.

"However, although e-cigarettes generally emit fewer toxicants than combustible tobacco products, we know that aerosol from e-cigarettes is not harmless."

He urged greater federal regulations, raising and enforcing minimum age of sale laws, and media campaigns to educate the public on the harms of e-cigarettes.

Opposing views

The report contained no new scientific research, but could still serve as an "important document for healthcare providers, policy makers and others," said Patricia Folan, director of the Center for Tobacco Control at Northwell Health in New York.

Experts in Britain, however, questioned the US take on e-cigarettes as a threat.

"The position in the UK is very different," said Kevin Fenton, national director of health and wellbeing at Public Health England.

"Our review of the evidence found e-cigarette use carries a fraction of the risk of smoking, a conclusion reiterated by the Royal College of Physicians earlier this year," he said.

"No new evidence has been published to contradict this."

And multiple studies have shown that e-cigarettes may help traditional smokers abandon cigarettes.

Research released earlier this year by the University College London showed that e-cigarettes may have helped some 18,000 smokers in England kick the tobacco habit last year.

Peter Hajek, director of the Tobacco Dependence Research Unit at Queen Mary University of London, described vaping as "a great public health opportunity" because it can help smokers transition away from cigarettes.

"The new US report's conclusions do not tally with what the actual data show," he added.

"It is simply not true that e-cigarettes are a tobacco product or that vaping lures children to smoking or that it creates dependence in non-smokers."

Len Horovitz, a pulmonary specialist at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York, disagreed, saying teens will transition to smoking cigarettes after using e-cigarettes.

"The gateway to cigarette smoking may still be the e-cigarette, and there is no safe level of traditional smoking."

Worldwide, smoking kills around six million people each year, mostly in low-income countries, according to the World Health Organization.

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"The Recalibration of Awareness – Apr 20/21, 2012 (Kryon channeled by Lee Carroll) (Subjects: Old Energy, Recalibration Lectures, God / Creator, Religions/Spiritual systems  (Catholic Church, Priests/Nun’s, Worship, John Paul Pope, Women in the Church otherwise church will go, Current Pope won’t do it),  Middle East, Jews, Governments will change (Internet, Media, Democracies, Dictators, North Korea, Nations voted at once), Integrity (Businesses, Tobacco Companies, Bankers/ Financial Institutes, Pharmaceutical company to collapse),  Illuminati (Started in Greece, with Shipping, Financial markets, Stock markets, Pharmaceutical money (fund to build Africa, to develop)), Shift of Human Consciousness, (Old) Souls, Women, Masters to/already come back, Global Unity.... etc.) - (Text version)

“…  The Shift in Human Nature

You're starting to see integrity change. Awareness recalibrates integrity, and the Human Being who would sit there and take advantage of another Human Being in an old energy would never do it in a new energy. The reason? It will become intuitive, so this is a shift in Human Nature as well, for in the past you have assumed that people take advantage of people first and integrity comes later. That's just ordinary Human nature.

In the past, Human nature expressed within governments worked like this: If you were stronger than the other one, you simply conquered them. If you were strong, it was an invitation to conquer. If you were weak, it was an invitation to be conquered. No one even thought about it. It was the way of things. The bigger you could have your armies, the better they would do when you sent them out to conquer. That's not how you think today. Did you notice?

Any country that thinks this way today will not survive, for humanity has discovered that the world goes far better by putting things together instead of tearing them apart. The new energy puts the weak and strong together in ways that make sense and that have integrity. Take a look at what happened to some of the businesses in this great land (USA). Up to 30 years ago, when you started realizing some of them didn't have integrity, you eliminated them. What happened to the tobacco companies when you realized they were knowingly addicting your children? Today, they still sell their products to less-aware countries, but that will also change.

What did you do a few years ago when you realized that your bankers were actually selling you homes that they knew you couldn't pay for later? They were walking away, smiling greedily, not thinking about the heartbreak that was to follow when a life's dream would be lost. Dear American, you are in a recession. However, this is like when you prune a tree and cut back the branches. When the tree grows back, you've got control and the branches will grow bigger and stronger than they were before, without the greed factor. Then, if you don't like the way it grows back, you'll prune it again! I tell you this because awareness is now in control of big money. It's right before your eyes, what you're doing. But fear often rules. ...”