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		</div><p>A European health body has said it cannot back vaping as a safe aid to quitting smoking.</p>
<p>The European Respiratory Society (ERS) said it cannot recommend tobacco harm reduction strategies and that there is no evidence alternative nicotine products are safe.</p>
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<p>They say a reduced but continued exposure to toxicants is a “bad alternative to quitting smoking” and that harm reduction should be used for a minority of high-risk smokers rather than the general population.</p>
<p>In an editorial, the ERS Tobacco Control Committee said current health policies are based on “well-meaning but incorrect or undocumented claims or assumptions”.</p>
<p>The authors write: “It must be acknowledged that many health professionals, tobacco control professionals and decision-makers who recommend the harm reduction strategy have very good intentions.</p>
<p>“They focus on the smokers and see harm reduction as a pragmatic way of reducing the devastating health effects of the tobacco epidemic.</p>
<p>“However, good intentions must always be supported by strong evidence before large-scale implementation.</p>
<blockquote><p>There is nothing in this new paper that should change advice to smokers. If you smoke, switch. If you don’t smoke, don’t vape.</p></blockquote>
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<p>“Evidence on the safety and the effectiveness of alternative nicotine delivery products as a smoking cessation tool is still lacking, while use of nicotine-containing products is spreading to non-smokers, which is most alarming.”</p>
<p>The authors of the editorial list seven arguments detailing their position.</p>
<p>They say there is a lack of evidence that nicotine delivery products are effective or safe smoking cessation tools, dual use is frequent, and the devices may have a “unfavourable” net effect on society with non-smokers being tempted to vape.</p>
<p>They also say there are many other effective strategies to reduce smoking at a population level – which they call one of public health’s “greatest successes”.</p>
<p>They conclude: “Therefore, ERS strongly supports implementation of WorldHealth Organization’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, which also provides regulation tonovel products, and cannot recommend tobacco harm reduction as a population-based strategy.”</p>
<p>But Professor John Britton, director of the UK Centre for Tobacco &; Alcohol Studies and consultant in respiratory medicine at the University of Nottingham, said every argument made in the editorial was wrong.</p>
<p>He said: “They (the authors) are so opposed to nicotine dependency in any form that they are risking the lives of smokers who would benefit by switching completely to e-cigarettes.</p>
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<p>“There is nothing in this new paper that should change advice to smokers. If you smoke, switch. If you don’t smoke, don’t vape.</p>
<p>“And just as you wouldn’t buy unlicensed alcoholic drinks, don’t vape cannabis or other bootleg products.”</p>
<p>Last month cardiologists warned countries should consider banning vaping as they published new research suggesting it could damage the brain, heart, blood vessels and lungs.</p>
<p>Public Health England has continued to stand by its 2015 claim that e-cigarettes are 95% less harmful than smoking.</p>
<p>The intervention comes alongside a case study, also published in the European Respiratory Journal, which claims that a rare form of scarring in the lungs of a 49-year-old woman was likely caused by vaping.</p>
<p>Hard-metal pneumoconiosis, which can result in permanent scarring, breathing difficulties and chronic coughing, was reported by academics from the University of California in the US.</p>
<p>The woman vaped cannabis oil, which is what many of the hundreds of cases of lung illness in the US have been linked to.</p>
<p>The researchers found cobalt and other toxic metals in the vapour produced by the device, which they believe comes from the heating coils found inside.</p>
<p>They believe it is the first example of metal-induced toxicity in the lung following vaping.</p>
<p>Co-author of the editorial Jorgen Vestbo, professor of respiratory medicine at the University of Manchester, said: “E-cigarettes are harmful, they cause nicotine addiction and can never substitute for evidence-based smoking cessation tools.</p>
<p>“The medical profession as well as the public should be concerned about a new wave of lung diseases caused by a product which is heavily promoted by the tobacco industry.”</p>
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