According to WHO, the tobacco epidemic is one of the biggest public health threats the world has ever faced, killing nearly six million people a year. Approximately one person dies every six seconds due to tobacco, accounting for one in 10 adult deaths. In the recent report, WHO ‘accepts’ that e-cigarettes might help people on their attempts to quit smoking and they may be able to downsize the negative effects of smoking.
By Apostolos Vardangalos, Global Health Minders’ intern
WHO has earlier warned the global community about the lack of scientific evidence regarding the negative effects of the e-cigarettes on human organism. The resent report softens the organization’s view and recognizes that e-cigarettes might help smokers in their efforts to quit smoking, as suggested by various studies. It is though underlined that there is currently insufficient evidence to conclude that e-cigarettes help users quit smoking. Therefore, WHO currently recommends that smokers should first be encouraged to quit smoking and nicotine addiction by using a combination of already-approved treatments.
In the report, WHO also calls for creating a legislative framework which can provide countries with guidelines for regulation, in particular for advertising and indoor use.
If preventive measures are not taken to help people around the world to disengage from smoking the number of victims from tobacco use will be rising constantly and as WHO warns the global community, by 2030 the annual tobacco related deaths will rise to more than 8 million per year.
Read the WHO report ‘Electronic nicotine delivery systems’ here.
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