Grandstand. Both individual and collective health decisions must meet an ethical requirement. This requirement requires in particular an evidence-based approach, according to well-established rules used internationally in order to deliver care whose effectiveness is demonstrated, whose level of risk is known and whose benefits outweigh the risks. It is this risk-benefit ratio that is at the heart of decisions, in all countries and for all independent health institutions.
The opinion of the High Council for Public Health (HCSP) on the use of electronic cigarettes (“ Opinion on the benefits and risks of electronic cigarettes », January 4) follows these rules.
everyday consumer products
The majority of knowledge on “vaping products” (consisting of a battery, a tank filled with a liquid, heated by a resistor and producing an aerosol), denomination used by the 2016 law for the modernization of our health, recalls that these are not health products, but everyday consumer products.
In France, more than half of electronic cigarette users also smoke tobacco. Reducing tobacco consumption (for example going from fifteen to five cigarettes a day) does not reduce the risk of tobacco-related disease or death.
Some users use this argument to resort to vaping products in order to reduce the indisputable risk associated with tobacco use. It is therefore important that the message of support for complete cessation of tobacco consumption is well understood by health professionals, by the social sector and by smokers.
However, the data from currently available sources do not have a sufficient level of evidence concerning the benefit provided by vaping products as an aid to quitting smoking compared to other validated treatments, medicinal or not. Furthermore, these data also do not allow an assessment of the risk potentially associated with their use.
A risk of becoming a smoker
Consequently, due to the insufficient level of proof compared to the level of proof required for health products, the HCSP working group could not recommend to healthcare professionals the “prescription” vaping products in this indication. These recommendations are in line with those of the health authorities of several countries and international health authorities.
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