Traditional tobacco products and e-cigarettes have plenty of things in common that the idea of classifying e-cigarettes as a tobacco product is not too far out. A group of scientists and health experts, however, does not want this to happen, apparently because doing so could compromise what they consider as a chance to eradicate smoking-related health problems and deaths.
In a letter sent to World Health Organization (WHO) Director General Margaret Chan on Monday, 53 scientists from different countries worldwide including the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Sweden and Switzerland, among others, urged the UN agency not to classify e-cigarette products as tobacco as this could result in more harm than good and would have a negative implications on efforts to reduce diseases that are related to tobacco smoking.
Smoking is a risk factor for a number of diseases including cancer and cardiovascular disease. WHO figures also show that smoking is responsible for about 6 million deaths globally per year with more than 600,000 dying as a result of exposure to second hand smoke.
The group of scientists and health experts, which included Director of Tobacco Studies at Cancer Research UK Robert West, who published a study earlier this month that suggests using e-cigarettes is a more effective method of giving up smoking compared with some conventional methods such as the use of patches and gums. Others, who do research in the fields of smoking cessation and tobacco science, said that e-cigarette is not a part of the problem but is actually a part of the solution that could help reduce the burden associated with illnesses that are caused by smoking.
WHO considers e-cigarettes as a threat and wants the device to be classified as a tobacco product, as suggested by leaked documents from a meeting conducted late last year. Doing so means that e-cigarette will have the same restrictions applied to it just as with other products that are made from or derived from tobacco.
The health experts pointed out that the potential of e-cigarettes to reduce the burden of diseases that are caused by smoking is so big that the device can be considered as "among the most significant health innovations of the 21st Century" with the ability to save millions of lives.
"Regulators should avoid support for measures that could have the perverse effect of prolonging cigarette consumption," the open letter reads [pdf]. "We are deeply concerned that the classification of these products as tobacco will do more harm than good."
