Electronic cigarettes used by smokers who want to kick the habit show no
connection to heart disease, according to a study that adds to evidence of
health benefits of switching from tobacco to smokeless alternatives.
E-cigarettes, electronic tubes
that simulate the effect of smoking by producing nicotine vapor, prompted no
adverse effects on cardiac function in the study, researchers from the Athens-
based Onassis Cardiac Surgery Center said in a report presented at the European
Society of Cardiology annual meeting in Munich today.
Investigators examined the heart
activity of 20 young daily smokers after one ordinary cigarette against 22
people who smoked an electronic cigarette for 7 minutes. Whereas tobacco
smokers showed “significant” disruptions of functions such as heartbeats or
blood pressure, the effect of e-cigarettes on the heart was minimal,
Konstantinos Farsalinos, one of the researchers, said in the presentation.
“Currently available data suggest
that electronic cigarettes are far less harmful, and substituting tobacco with
electronic cigarettes may be beneficial to health,” Farsalinos said.
Previous studies have found that
the electronic devices would have to be smoked daily for four to 12 months to
achieve the levels of nitrosamines, a carcinogen, that are present in a single
tobacco cigarette, the researchers said. Industrywide e- cigarette sales this
year are likely to double from $250 million in 2011, according to UBS AG.
Psychological Effects
Electronic cigarettes, which
mimic the look and feel of traditional versions without generating smoke and
ash, are one of the few smoking alternatives that provide users with their
chemical need for nicotine and reproduce the psychological effect of holding
and smoking a cigarette, the researcher said.
Makers of the battery-powered
devices include Lorillard Inc. (LO), a Greensboro, North Carolina-based
producer of standard cigarettes, which acquired Blue Ecigs for $135 million in
April. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has yet to impose rules on the
testing and production of e-cigarettes.
About 2.5 million people use
e-cigarettes in the U.S., according to an estimate by the Tobacco Vapor
Electronic Cigarette Association.
Although nicotine is present in
the devices’ vapor, it is absorbed by the blood at a far slower rate than
tobacco smoke, accounting for the lower levels of toxicity, Farsalinos said. No
traces of nitrosamine were found in the e-cigarettes in the study, he said.
Mehreen Khan
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