The Evidence of Electronic Cigarette Risks Is Catching Up With Public Perception
Menée aux Etats-Unis à partir des données de deux enquêtes pluriannuelles auprès d'adultes âgés de plus de 18 ans, cette étude évalue leurs perceptions des risques pour la santé vis-à-vis des cigarettes électroniques par rapport aux cigarettes classiques, puis analyse l'évolution de ces perceptions sur la période 2012-2017
The advent of electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes), devices that deliver a nicotine aerosol to the lungs by heating a nicotine-containing liquid rather than burning tobacco, has triggered an intense debate over their value for reducing the harm tobacco products cause. The optimists see e-cigarettes delivering nicotine without all the combustion byproducts of conventional cigarettes, whereas others point out that e-cigarettes still deliver an aerosol of ultrafine particles and other toxicants that carry substantial health risks.A key to realizing the optimists’ vision for e-cigarettes is smokers switching completely from cigarettes to e-cigarettes. Because perceived risks play an important role in selecting tobacco products, Huang and colleagues examined how perceptions of the risk of e-cigarettes compared with cigarettes have changed from 2012 to 2017 using 2 national surveys, the Tobacco Products and Risk Perceptions Surveys they conducted and the Health Information National Trends Surveys (HINTS). They found that the fraction of respondents who believed that e-cigarettes were less harmful than cigarettes decreased from approximately 45% in 2012 to approximately 35% in 2017, whereas the fraction who thought they were about the same increased to approximately 45%. (These estimates combine the 2 surveys. The estimates of “about the same” in 2012 were very different in the 2 surveys, so are not listed here; the other results were more similar.) The fractions who thought e-cigarettes were more dangerous than cigarettes increased but remained low, at less than 10%.