E-Cigarettes: What’s the Real Medical Innovation Breakthrough?

Abstract: Society at large is unclear what to think or do about e-cigarettes. What is clear is that, according to the WHO, one billion preventable tobacco-related premature deaths are at stake in the 21st Century. In this presentation we look at the products. My talk will demonstrate the medical breakthrough implicit in e-cigarette technology, describing where we are and what we still have to do. I will show that customer-focused, rigorous and high-quality science is starting to address many of the valid concerns about safety and quality. This technology promises to reduce deaths from cigarettes radically in the future, but only by meeting smokers’ expectations and with rising standards of quality and safety across the category. E-cigarette users themselves are increasingly looking for more information about the products they use, accurate labelling, batteries that are safety tested, and vapour that has been risk assessed. My message will be that regulators should resist the urge to apply highly restrictive measures that would have the perverse effect of prolonging cigarette smoking. Instead, they should encourage and oversee the sharing of accurate data on both products and the standards companies operate to in their manufacturing and distribution. The majority of smokers in markets like the US would rather not smoke. They need attractive products that meet their needs, with safety and quality assurances that they, the regulators and the scientific community can all have confidence in.