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Electronic cigarette: Is “vaping” better than smoking? Volume 10, issue 3, Mars 2014

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Société Française de Documentation et de Recherche en Médecine Générale

Much ado about not much? Possible health risks seem quite rare outside the continuation of the nicotine addiction. It is not so simple, because of the double use of eCigarets and tobacco, which takes place, and the entry of the tobacco industry in this market. The eC can actually help some smokers to do without their cigarette. This seems trivial, but reminds us that the smoking addiction is not just a pharmacological addiction to nicotine. For some chain smokers, it is also a real reduction in the cardiovascular and cancer risks resulting from smoking: a “renormalization” a priori with little health harm, but still not a panacea for smoking cessation... No study seems to show pharmacological effects of nicotine addiction in the usual sense of the word. In this context the e-cigarette does not appear neither as particularly dangerous nor like a miracle solution... Smoking abstinence, which is probably the best solution, is “reserved” for a minority. Could nicotine be a “third way” when it is taken in another form than smoke inhalations, one that would significantly reduce the multiple risks of smoking?