South Korea: ''E-cigarettes are not safe''

Source from:  Korea Times 04/07/2015

Health authorities have concluded that smoking e-cigarettes is not safe, raising doubt over their effectiveness in helping people quit smoking.

The National Evidence-based Healthcare Collaborating Agency, which is under the wing of the Ministry of Health and Welfare, said Monday e-cigarettes contain carcinogenic substances, although the amounts may be smaller than those in real cigarettes.

"Some studies also show e-cigarettes can contain harmful materials that do not exist in ordinary cigarettes, such as phthalate," it said. "Also, when the users control the amount of nicotine solution, it is difficult to predict how much nicotine the people consume. So we can't say that e-cigarettes are safe from nicotine exposure."

The agency said it received help from 11 experts who took part in an agency discussion session in February.

About e-cigarettes' effect in helping people quit smoking, they said there are not enough medical grounds about it, adding it is improper to advertise e-cigarettes as an aid to smoking cessation.

They said there needs to be more discussion to prepare regulations on e-cigarettes such as the level of nicotine solution's concentration and the kinds of permitted additives.

"The nation needs more studies about the reality of e-cigarette use, its safety and effect in quitting or reducing smoking. But such studies will have to exclude commercially interested parties."

The agency also disclosed the result of a poll of 33 health experts and 1,000 people, half of whom are smokers.

Among the experts, 97 percent said e-cigarettes are harmful, while 71.6 percent of the others said so.

While 87.9 percent of the experts said they do not think e-cigarettes are helpful in quitting smoking, 30.3 percent of the people believe they are effective.

"Unlike experts, some ordinary people were positive about e-cigarettes as an alternative to cigarettes, even believing that e-cigarettes can help in quitting smoking," an agency official said. "We need to publicize experts' opinions to citizens more actively." Enditem