Vaping has potential to be “greatest public health miracle of our lifetimes"
As research into the effects of e-cigarette vapour intensifies, evidence continues to mount that vaping is considerably safer than smoking. The latest study adding to the case came from none other than British American Tobacco (BAT), who, despite selling tobacco products since 1902, are now themselves dipping a toe in the waters of change surrounding the nicotine marketplace.
Their research saw them team up with the MatTek Corporation, who make models of human cells for laboratory experiments. The study involved exposing lung cell replicas, via a ‘smoking robot’, to tobacco smoke, the vapour from two different e-cigarette brands and common-or-garden air. Those reading this column won’t win any prizes for guessing what happened next.
In predictable fashion, the cells died after six hours’ exposure to tobacco smoke. Moreover, after hours under the mortal peril of "aggressive and continuous" doses of e-cig vapour, airway tissue damage was "similar to that of air" – that is to say, the vapour had no toxic effect.
Dr Michael Siegel, professor in the Department of Community Health Sciences at Boston University's School of Public Health, embraced the research and said that a mass switch from smoking to vaping “would result in the greatest public health miracle of our lifetimes". At the same time he encouraged anti-tobacco groups and public health bodies to get behind such a transition.
The fact that a company such as BAT, who have obvious interests in tobacco products, has published research of this kind says a lot. It is true that they have developed vaping products of their own in recent years but releasing such stark findings does strike a significant blow to the founding pillar of their model – tobacco. One can only conclude they have looked into the future and decided tobacco will be old hat.
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