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SMOKING CESSATION 43
“Although marketed as a healthier alternative to traditional cigarettes, e-cigarettes are not harmless, and there are significant health risks associated with their use.
“Increasing use among non-smoking youth also speaks to the vaping industry’s continued targeting of this population
via youth-oriented marketing and the development of new youth-oriented ‘e-juice’ flavours such as bubble gum and Red Bull.”
Share the science
Emerging health concerns led the federal government to prohibit the importation of ‘electronic nicotine delivery systems’ (ENDS) and refills containing nicotine from 1 January 2020, unless on prescription from a doctor.
This includes e-cigarettes, vaporisers and vape pens, all of which use a battery to heat a solution (‘juice’) containing nicotine that users inhale or ‘vape’.
In June 2020, ENDS research1 revealed there could be a transfer of five different metals (iron, nickel, copper, zinc and lead) from the e-cigarette’s heating coil to the e-liquid. The transfer of metals to this liquid increases with greater airflow and higher nicotine concentration.
Research also shows e-cigarettes
can harm the user’s oral microbiome. The study2 found pathogen overrepresentation, higher virulence signatures and a brisk proinflammatory signal in what were otherwise clinically healthy e-cigarette users. The effects were equivalent to patients presenting with severe periodontitis.
Despite these health concerns, being able to inhale nicotine without the risk of tobacco harm is proving attractive to a wide range of people, including smokers ready to quit, and young never-smokers
vulnerable to messaging promoting vaping on social media.
It’s therefore important those in pharmacy understand the changing vaping landscape and can talk to smokers and vapers about the associated health risks, including the potential for vaping to increase a smoker’s level of nicotine dependence.
Director of Clinical Research at the Johns Hopkins Ciccarone Centre for the Prevention of Heart Disease in the US,
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RETAIL PHARMACY ASSISTANTS • SEP 2020