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ADOLESCENTS WHO USE e-cigarettes are three-to-five times more likely to start smoking tobacco cigarettes compared to those who have never used e-cigarettes.
That’s according to a new review from the Health Research Board (HRB), conducted to help inform Department of Health policy regarding e-cigarettes.
The review also found that e-cigarettes are no more effective than approved and regulated nicotine replacement therapies – such as gum, patches, lozenges – to help people stop smoking.
The HRB said that e-cigarettes as a smoking cessation device are not regulated or approved, and their safety beyond 12 months is not yet known.
The dual use of both e-cigarettes and conventional tobacco cigarettes wasn’t less harmful than smoking tobacco alone, the HRB said.
It also pointed to acute effects of e-cigarettes including poisonings, burns, blast injuries, lung injury and asthmatic attacks. It added that some of the chemicals in e-cigarettes are thought to cause tissue and cell damages, and some are agents that may cause cancer in the long term.
The HRB also stressed that the long-term health effects beyond 24 months are not yet fully researched. Its review was based on analysis of existing research and literature into e-cigarettes and their effects.
Dr Jean Long, the head of the HRB’s evidence centre, said: “Our findings also highlight that e-cigarettes have the potential to negatively impact on the health of adolescents, leaving them more likely to initiate tobacco smoking. These factors would have to be considered as part of any smoking harm reduction strategy.
Our findings highlight that it is important more is done to promote NRT and protect the health of adolescents and vulnerable groups before considering the role of unregulated e-cigarettes as a harm reduction approach.
Last year, then-Minister for Health Simon Harris pledged to ban the sale of e-cigarettes to children. Legislation to enact this has been examined by the Department of Health.
HRB chief executive Dr Mairéad O’Driscoll said: “This HRB review is already informing forthcoming HSE good practice guidelines to help people stop smoking and these will take into consideration the place of the e-cigarette when trying to stop smoking. The Department of Health have also prepared legislation which will look at licensing of retail outlets and banning e-cigarettes for young people under 18 years of age.”
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Isn’t a well known public figure who abused for years getting their sentence reduced down to 2 years for “good character and behaviour” (insert Judge feel good lingo here)
It needs to be said, we do not punish abusers in Ireland, there is no deterrence. It needs to change.
Also a conversation on consent needs to be amped up further in schools. Things need to change.
@TheFreeSpeechParty: well said. Rape should mean a life sentence.
@TheFreeSpeechParty: I agree , well said. Respect and consent , and relationships in general should be discussed in schools
@James Wormold: Chemical castration would be a more economic and effective option.
@Carla Killeen: raping women would be anathema to the vast majority of men with a high sex drive. Rape is about much more than male hormones and sex, it’s about control and violating another person. Chemical castration might reduce recidivism rates but there is no evidence to suggest it acts as a deterrent in the first place. Teaching children about respect, body autonomy and consent from a young age might prevent some from ever thinking it’s okay to violate another person.
You won’t see Leo tackling this problem, you won’t see any kind of judicial reform regards to sentences. I am convinced the judges always try to side with the perpetrator, if you have a good character, if you plead guilty, if you have a job. Anything at all that can be used to reduce a sentence the judge will try his best, oh he was cooperative, that’s another few months off. Then of course in the case of a rape, the judge doesn’t sentence for each crime committed within the rape, the violence, the threats etc it is all bundled into one and the mandatory suspension part of the sentence.
And yet in the other news report today we have people insisting abortion services are a “lifestyle choice” and not required in Ireland.
The perpetrators get full benefit of certain circumstances while the victim gets violated over and over .. Throw away the keys .
In a society where the media and entertainment industry place heavy emphasis on sexual consumption and instant gratification as elements of the Good Life, it is not surprising that predatory men see women and girls as objects of their desires.
@Garreth Byrne: so rape didn’t exist before TV?
@EillieEs: Rape is as old as the hills. The sex saturation of the media and mass entertainment tends to emphasise eros rather than conjugal love as a key element of the Good Life. Women’s bodies are graphically projected more than their minds and personal qualities. As sex objects they are targeted for male gratification.
If you use a gun as a weapon it’s taken from you…….chemical castration
@John O Reilly: Agreed, it would be the best deterrent.
@John O Reilly: how to stop that person ever using it as a weapon in the first place?
@EillieEs: nothing….some people are animals
How can you be a good person if you rape someone should get life imprisonment
@Margaret Kane: This question needs to be asked, this is a really good question that should be put to judges.
If 34.3% of the enquiries to the Dublin Rape Crisis Centre are from other parts of the country is this a funding issue?
It’s not really a great place at all, especially if the privileged have hurt you. Pigs and sheep, people, pigs and sheep.
have your say