Safety evaluation and risk assessment of electronic cigarettes as tobacco cigarettes substitutes: A systematic review

Thursday, 13 February 2014 17:24

Safety evaluation and risk assessment of electronic cigarettes as tobacco cigarettes substitutes: A systematic review

A new study was published today in the journal “Therapeutic Advances in Drug Safety”. The paper, co-authored by Dr Konstantinos Farsalinos from the Onassis Cardiac Surgery Center in Greece and Prof Riccardo Polosa from the University of Catania in Italy, is a systematic review of all studies on the safety and risk profile of e-cigarettes. A total of 114 studies are referenced in this paper, with 97 directly related to e-cigarettes or their ingredients. The review covers all aspects, from chemical to clinical studies, including studies evaluating the potential effects of selected ingredients of e-cigarettes such as propylene glycol and glycerol. It includes discussion about the effects of nicotine and findings from studies evaluating passive exposure to e-cigarette aerosol.

This is the first extensive e-cigarette review published in a peer-reviewed medical journal. Unlike the report ordered by the WHO, none ordered or paid for this paper and (most importantly) it was peer-reviewed before being published. The main themes of the paper are: discussion about nicotine and its effects-toxicity, presentation of chemical studies, cytotoxicity studies, clinical-case report studies and surveys, passive vaping studies and miscellaneous issues such as e-cigarette use by specific subpopulations (patients with respiratory disease or psychiatric conditions), accidental nicotine exposure, electrical accidents and fires and use by youngsters and non-smokers. Discussion about mistakes in methodology and mis-interpretation of findings is also included.

The study can be found here, and you can have access to the full text by registering for free to the journal.