“ How do you demonstrate that there is a beneficial reduction of relative health risks if a smoker switches from cigarettes to an alternative product ? The answer is : you need to study people using these products and you need to study them for a long time .” one particular compound , you are inadvertently interfering with the level and effects of another ? A bit like a lumpy mattress – you push one lump down and another appears somewhere else . In any event , after years of research and millions of pounds spent , it became clear that cigarette smoke is so complicated , it would have to be eliminated altogether to make a real , substantiated difference . This is how we came to be where we are today - in a brave new world of high tech , innovative next-generation products that seem to be giving consumers what they want , without exposing them to cigarette smoke and with the potential to be substantially reduced risk compared to cigarettes .
What about alternative products ? We already know a lot about e-cigarettes and tobacco heating products . There is no burning and no smoke , so that complication has been eliminated . The signs are good , and everything seems to be pointing in the right direction . And in our case , we have thoroughly researched our products . We understand how people use them , we know what is in the vapour , and we have observed the impact of that vapour on cells in the lab . We have now embarked on a series of clinical studies , involving people , of which this will be the largest , most ambitious to date . With these studies , we hope to demonstrate that these products not only satisfy consumers but expose them to lower levels of toxicants and are potentially substantially safer than cigarettes in the longterm .
that reduce their exposure to harmful smoke toxicants over a long period of time , biomarkers relevant to disease should also become directionally similar to those of smokers who quit .
Switching A recent UK study looked at whether switching to e-cigarettes or nicotine-replacement therapies for at least six months would lower exposure to certain compounds in the body . And yes , they did find that there were much lower levels of certain compounds in their body compared to those who continued to smoke . ( Published in the Annals of Internal Medicine doi : 10.7326 / M16-1107 ). These compounds are the breakdown products of certain toxicants in smoke ( ie the substances created when the body breaks that toxicant down ). Lower levels of these compounds mean lower levels of exposure to toxicants . This led Cancer Research UK , one of the largest charities in the country and funder of this research , to say that ‘ e-cigarettes are less toxic and safer to use compared to conventional cigarettes .’ So far so good . Our planned study goes that bit further . It is longer ( up to one year following study subjects ) and looks at a greater number of chemicals in the body . “ We have a long heritage of working in this area , and were the first to conduct a risk-spectrum exposure study that demonstrated the difference in emissions between smoke and the vapour produced
Exposure and Risk How do you measure exposure to chemicals and how do you measure potential risk ? Exposure can be evaluated by measuring the levels of chemicals of interest in urine for example . Regarding evaluating potential risk , an answer to that , or at least a suggestion was put forward a number of years ago by the US Institute of Medicine ( IOM ). According to the IOM , if a tobacco or nicotine product is truly modified risk compared to cigarettes , the chemical and biological markers in consumers who use these modified products would be similar to those of smokers who have quit . In theory , therefore , if smokers switch to alternative products
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