E-cigarettes are controversial. A lot of people take up vaping because they’re addicted to nicotine and they think e-cigarettes are a healthy alternative to smoking cigarettes. It seems logical that, for smokers who already have lung cancer, e-cigarettes would be the safer way to go to deal with that nicotine addiction. But no one can really say right now exactly how safe e-cigarettes are … and a new study out of the United Kingdom shows that a lot of doctors and nurses are hesitant to suggest people who smoke and have lung cancer make the switch to vaping.
Research presented at the 2018 National Cancer Research Institute Conference showed that 29% of surveyed health professionals said they would not recommend e-cigarettes to lung cancer patients who already smoke – despite the risks that come with smoking. Health organizations in England, like Public Health England and the Royal College of Physicians, have expressed support for e-cigarette use, saying it is less harmful than smoking cigarettes. But the reality is, health professionals can’t really make the call on the risks associated with vaping, because e-cigarettes haven’t been around for that long.
Read More“So far in my practice, I have not seen a single patient who has developed lung cancer from vaping,” said Dr. Flores. “But vaping is still in its infancy. Vaping just started about five years ago … In order to develop a cancer from a carcinogen, it takes a long period of time. When you look at the study that definitively showed that lung cancer was caused by smoking, that took 40 to 50 years to actually show. In order to prove something causes cancer, you need a large number of people and a longer period of time.”
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