Tag: CoEHAR

  • Researchers Identify Vape Flavors Used to Quit Smoking

    Researchers Identify Vape Flavors Used to Quit Smoking

    The most interesting data is that when a smoker decides to quit smoking using modified-risk electronic tools, they gravitate toward flavors different from tobacco.

    Konstantinos Farsalinos, co-author

    A recent survey revealed that the most utilized flavors to quit smoking in the U.S. are those of fruit, baked goods and chocolate.

    A team of European researchers affiliated with the Center of Excellence for the Acceleration of Harm Reduction (CoEHAR), the University of West Attica and the University of Patras conducted an online survey on a sample of about 70,000 adult vapers in the U.S. The study focused on comparing flavor use between current-smoking vapers (dual use) and former-smoking vapers and on specifically examining patterns of flavor use among former-smoking vapers at the time of quitting smoking.

    Graph: CoEHAR

    “This is the largest survey ever conducted on the use of electronic cigarettes in terms of sample size,” said study author Konstantinos Farsalinos in a statement. “The most interesting data is that when a smoker decides to quit smoking using modified-risk electronic tools, they gravitate toward flavors different from tobacco, with a clear preference for fruit, dessert and chocolate flavors. We can deduce, therefore, that these specific flavors are more useful for those who want to quit or avoid relapses.”

    When it comes to regulating vape flavors, Riccardo Polosa, founder of the CoEHAR, urged lawmakers to strike a balance between the need to protect young people and the desire to help adult smokers quit.

  • New Study Finds E-cigarette Lung Damage Unproven

    New Study Finds E-cigarette Lung Damage Unproven

    Credit: FrameStock

    A recent study comparing lung inflammation between smokers and nonsmokers does not prove any causality between the use of e-cigarettes and lung damage, according to researchers from the Center of Excellence for the acceleration of Harm Reduction (CoEHAR) in Catania, Italy.

    A recently published study by a team of American researchers compared the scans of the lungs of five electronic cigarette users, five tobacco cigarette smokers and five subjects who never smoked or vaped. Data suggested preliminary evidence that e-cigarette users had greater pulmonary inflammation than cigarette smokers and never smoke/vape controls, implying even a greater damage to health.

    In a letter to the editor of The Journal of Nuclear Medicine, the CoEHAR researchers expressed their concern about the study. “The very small sample size and low reproducibility of the tests does not allow us to give a precise and scientific answer on pulmonary inflammation caused by vaping because it does not take into consideration fundamental factors, such as the prior exposure to tobacco smoking,” said CoEHAR founder Riccardo Polosa in a statement.

    “The very small sample size and low reproducibility of the tests does not allow us to give a precise and scientific answer on pulmonary inflammation caused by vaping because it does not take into consideration fundamental factors, such as the prior exposure to tobacco smoking.

    Riccardo Polosa, founder. CoEHAR

    Because it is impossible to decouple the health impact of e-cigarette aerosol emissions from prior tobacco smoke exposure, only long-term follow-up of exclusive vapers who have never smoked can verify potential harm caused by electronic cigarettes use.

    CoEHAR stresses the need to develop and adopt shared scientific research standards and a greater control of publication processes: “We often opposes poor quality designed scientific results that are published in prestigious journals without proper scrutiny: researches that only feed an unfounded anti-vape rhetoric based on preconceptions that try to dissuade smokers from making choices that are less harmful to their health,” said Polosa.