Pharmacists remind that vapers are not effective for quitting tobacco

Madrid, May 26. The General Council of Official Colleges of Pharmacists has recalled this Friday that there is no evidence of the safety and efficacy of vapers to help quit tobacco and has warned of the concern generated by their use from a health point of view.

Within the framework of the regulation on these products that is being addressed by the Ministry of Health, the General Council considers that the community pharmacy, as a health establishment, is not the appropriate space for their commercialization.

Although when they appeared on the market this option was valued as smoking cessation devices, various health entities such as the Spanish Society of Pneumology and Thoracic Surgery, the Public Health Commission of the Interterritorial Council of the National Health System and the Organization World Health Organization expressed that the substances that are inhaled are toxic.

E-cigarettes are used especially by smokers, smokers who want to quit and ex-smokers, but there is particular concern about their use by young people, often without a previous history of using tobacco products.

Pharmacists ask to reduce the consumption of all tobacco products and especially to prevent vapers from becoming the gateway to tobacco use among young people and non-smokers.

Precisely the Minister of Health, José Miñones, said yesterday that he is working on the development of anti-smoking campaigns aimed at vapers and pointed out the need to “continue betting” on smoke-free zones, a job, he said, that must be done from the hand of the Spanish Federation of Municipalities and Provinces (FEMP). EFE

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