In an article published today in the
European Respiratory Journal, results from a study on electronic
cigarettes show users get as much nicotine from this product as
smokers usually get from tobacco cigarettes.
The study, by researchers from the Universities of Geneva and
Auckland, reports levels of cotinine (a product of the degradation of
nicotine by the liver) in users of electronic cigarettes.
This is the first time cotinine data among electronic cigarette
users in real-life conditions are published. So far, there were only
laboratory data among naïve users who used this product briefly
before their blood was tested for nicotine. These previously
published data showed that naïve users obtained little or no nicotine
from electronic cigarettes.
The new research published today shows instead that experienced
users (all of them former smokers), in real life conditions (not in a
laboratory) get a dose of nicotine similar to the dose that smokers
usually get from tobacco cigarettes.
These results are important because governments in many countries
are developing regulations for electronic cigarettes (currently, some
countries prohibit them, others allow them with nicotine and others
without nicotine). In this context, it is very important to know, for
health authorities, doctors and consumers, that electronic cigarettes
can deliver as much nicotine as tobacco cigarettes.
Source Etter JF, Bullen C. Saliva cotinine levels in users of
electronic cigarettes. European Respiratory Journal. 2011, Nov 1, vol
38, 1219- 1220.
Media Contact:
Jean-François ETTER (author of the research), Faculty of Medicine,
University of Geneva, Switzerland. Tel: +41 76 348 57 86 or +41 22
379 04 59; Skype: jfetter. E-mail: Jean-Francois.Etter@unige.ch
