BMJ Journal on the Electronic Cigarette Missing the Point

A recent BMJ article on the electronic cigarette by two Greek researcher argued that there was no proof of the electronic cigarettes safety.

We have been discussing this with Paul Bergen, who has also blogged about it over on Smokles, the tobacco harm reduction blog, and we feel that the article is missing the point.

The point is not whether it is absolutely safe. As numerous scientists have told us (see our interview section) it is not absolutely safe. At the same time, all have maintained it is significantly safer – most estimate around one hundred times so.

(Professor Carl Phillips estimates the risk to be around the same as that of drinking a cup of coffee.)

Paul has pointed out that this is a common anti-harm reduction strategy – stating that something is not one hundred percent safe (what is?) when the actual aim is to minimise rather than eliminate danger.

The BBC article on the recent BMJ article was actually a quite good report.

Unlike many other stories, it did give both sides of the argument, with ASH UK pointing out that there was no doubt it was safer than real cigarettes:

“We do need better data on safety and appropriate regulation for e-cigarettes, although these products are certain to be significantly less hazardous than cigarettes, which lead to premature death in half all long-term users.”

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Related posts:

1. Electronic Cigarette Interview
2. How much can we trust?
3. How good is Ryanairs electronic cigarette?
4. FDA Leak Not News says Associated Content
5. E-Cigarettes: Healthy alternative??

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