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May 31 is World No Tobacco Day.
The e-cigarette was pushed centre stage ahead of World No Tobacco Day, with doctors and policy experts urging the UN's health agency to embrace the gadget as a life saver.
With tobacco smoke claiming a life every six seconds, the tar-free, electronic alternative could help prevent much of the cancer, heart and lung disease and strokes caused by the toxins in traditional cigarettes, the 50-odd experts wrote to World Health Organisation chief Margaret Chan.
E-cigarettes 'could be among the most significant health innovations of the 21st century, perhaps saving hundreds of millions of lives,' the group said.
They urged 'courageous leadership' from the WHO in guiding global and national approaches to e-cigarettes, which are banned in some countries like Brazil and Singapore and face increasingly strict restrictions in other countries amid uncertainty about their long-term health effects.
The group fears the WHO plans to lump the battery-powered devices, which release nicotine in a vapour instead of smoke and contain fewer toxins, with traditional cigarettes under its tobacco control policy.
This would compel member countries to ban advertising and use of the gadgets in public places, and to impose sin taxes.
'It would be unethical and harmful to inhibit the option to switch to tobacco harm-reduction products' like e-cigarettes, said the letter, a copy of which was given to AFP.
The WHO is working on recommendations for e-cigarette regulation, to be presented to a meeting of member governments in October.
But it does so in a scientific vacuum on the device's long-term safety and its true value as an aid to kicking the tobacco habit.
Some fear its use and often unrestricted promotion could glamorise an addictive habit, and hook non-smoking teenagers on nicotine.
Every year World No Tobacco Day is acknowledged on May 31 to increase awareness about the dangers of tobacco consumption. For more information please see https://www.thehealthsite.com/topics/tobacco/
What's an e-cig?
An electronic cigarette is a device that mimics the entire smoking process by producing a mist which has the same sensation (sometimes the same flavour too) of smoking. The concept of an electronic cigarette has been around since the 60s but tobacco consumption wasn't really considered hazardous back then and it took until 2003 for the first smokeless e-cigarette to hit the market.
Electronic cigarettes manufacturers claim that they are like real cigarettes except that there are no hazardous health implications because there is no combustion, no tobacco and no smoking. Also since there is no passive smoking, second hand smoke and pollution due to butt litter or smoke.
Tips to quit smoking
The reason people have trouble smoking is because of the main addictive component in smoking nicotine. But it's harder because tobacco addiction is like drug addiction or alcoholism and comprises a cluster of cognitive, behavioural and psychological phenomena which makes it hard to quit. One has to remember that very few people manage to quit in their first attempt. So here are the various smoking cessation techniques:
With inputs from PTI
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