New Delhi:
Finding a way to quit cigarettes? Well here are e-cigarettes in your service.According to a well renowned expert on vaping, e-cigarettes are reported to help people remain away from the harm caused by smoking cigarettes and hence can limit the number of deaths caused by smoking.
"The first line option to shield yourself from the toxicity of tobacco products is to quit smoking altogether and the second line of option is to quit with the help of medication," Konstantinos Farsalinos told reporters at an event organised in Delhi. Farsalinos is from the University of Patras in Greece.
Farsalinos is keen to share his findings on how e-cigarettes have benefited the people of Europe in their struggle to quit smoking, with the Indian medical fraternity and government authorities. And in order to share his findings, he is on a visit to India.
"Just as medicines offer a harm reduction technique for diseases or helmets provide bikers harm reduction in case of accidents, e-cigarettes add a harm reduction option for smokers," said Farsalinos.
He called upon a meeting of Indian public health officials and anti-tobacco activists to provide evidences and proper information of these products.
Farsalinos told 6.1 million smokers in the European Union have been benefited by the use of electronic cigarettes according to a 2014 study. The study also involves the analysation of data of a representative sample of about 28,000 Europeans, pointed Farsalinos.
"For countries with high prevalence of smoking and harmful smokeless tobacco use, e-cigarettes should be considered a golden opportunity to reduce harm in a cost-effective manner," he elucidated.
In November India will present the Seventh Conference of Parties (COP-7) of the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC). In this conference, public health officials from 180 countries will discuss on Electronic Nicotine Delivery Systems and likely accept the guidelines for policy and regulation.
Tobacco control community and anti-smoking activists are keen on nicotine, but according to Farsalinos it is misleading as no one dies from nicotine dependence.
