A leading Danish smoking cessation expert, senior physician Med. Dr. Philip Tønnesen, has today stated in an article that e-cigarettes help many people quit smoking. He thereby goes against the Danish Cancer Society and the World Health Organization WHO, both of which want e-cigarettes to be banned until there is scientific evidence of their health benefits.
E-cigarettes have many advantages according to the article; among other things, they help 11% of smokers in a study quit within one year, which may not sound like much but can be compared with the placebo group’s result of 4%. In addition, there have not been more smokers under the age of 25 since the e-cigarette was introduced to the market, so Tønnesen does not consider the Danish Cancer Society’s concern that more young people will start smoking because of it to be realistic either—albeit with reservations.
Tønnesen also says that legislation and quality control concerning e-cigarettes should nevertheless be introduced so that the product becomes “as pure as possible”. Until then, doctors should not recommend e-cigarettes to smoking patients, but should instead recommend the usual medical smoking cessation products that have been tested and are known to work.
However, he adds:
“But smoking tobacco is so dangerous. It cuts an average of 12 years from your life, and one in two dies from a smoking-related disease. And no matter what one can say against e-cigarettes, no one in their right mind can believe that they could cause the same harmful effects.”
