Health officials cautious about positive e-cigarettes study

A British study released this week that concluded e-cigarettes are 95 per cent less harmful than tobacco products is music to the ears of people who sell the product in Sudbury.

Danyelle Bedard, who co-manages Wild Willies Vapors on Lasalle Boulevard, said the study counters the mostly negative message coming from governments.

“I'm happy to finally have some information that's positive, because there's so much negativity out there," Bedard said. "If people don't know a lot about it, they're automatically going to go with what people are saying."

The study, released by Public Health England, also found that e-cigarettes could be an effective means to help people quit tobacco, and that there's little evidence they act as a gateway for young people to start smoking cigarettes.

Bedard said most of her customers are like her: former smokers who were looking for a way to quit. Unlike the patch or chewing gum, she said e-cigarettes do a better job of simulating the smoking habit.

"It gives you something to do with your hands, because you're so used to doing that,” she said. “And then also just the feeling of inhaling something. There's a big difference between (e-cigarettes) and the patch."

And vaping is growing increasingly popular. Sales are rising worldwide by more than 20 per cent a year. While few statistics are available in Canada, U.S. sales are projected to reach $2.475 billion in 2015, while global sales are expected to near $6 billion. Those figures reflect sales at her store, Bedard said, which opened just before Christmas 2014.

"Sales have been going up every month we've been open,” she said. “We've been getting more and more clients. We've been doing very well."

But she doesn't expect that governments will suddenly embrace the industry, although she's holding out hope.

"It's really hard to say what government officials are going to do,” Bedard said. "We do expect some more regulations, for sure. Which I can understand to a certain degree."

Francine Brunet-Fechner, a public health nurse with the Sudbury District Health Unit, said she hadn't read the British study yet, but was familiar with it. And while it shows e-cigarettes have promise as a quit-smoking aid, she said there's still too many unknowns about the long-term effects.

"I think most of us in public health practice are keeping an open mind,” Brunet-Fechner said. “The issue, though, is that at this point and time, we're working in accordance with what Health Canada has told us. Their advisory is still saying that they're against the use of e-cigarettes because we don't know the long-term health risks.”

She said there hasn't been enough research data yet to base decisions on, and while they may be less harmful than cigarettes, e-cigarettes still contain dangerous ingredients.

“And when there's still some harm involved, we have to precautionary. We have to have to provide a safe and secure means for the public who may use these products."

It's still a largely unregulated industry, Brunet-Fechner said, and there's a need for labelling and other rules to ensure customers know exactly what they're buying.

"Not necessarily a full ban on these items, but rather a level of control so we know how much nicotine is in them, that they're all made the same way, that they're not going to blow up in your face when you use them,” she said.

"All these research documents are helpful. I'm glad to see that there's more that's coming out, because I think in the long term, in the future, we'll see a decision made at some point as to how to tack and accept e-cigarettes."

In an email, Joanne Woodward Fraser, a senior communications adviser with the Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care, said the ministry is aware of the British study.

“The ministry is reviewing the report commissioned by Public Health England, as it continues to monitor all emerging literature on e-cigarettes,” Fraser said.

She said the ministry is backing two research studies, conducted by the Ontario Tobacco Research Unit and the University of Waterloo's Propel Centre for Population Health Impact. The goal is to get more information on “the prevalence, uptake, attitudes and knowledge among youth, as well as help to determine both short-term and long-term health effects of e-cigarettes.

“The research will also compare the health effects of cigarette use versus e-cigarette use, including the analysis of chemical concentrations of nicotine and other liquids potentially found in e-cigarettes. The results of the research will help inform the government of Ontario’s future policy regarding e-cigarettes.”