Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 2 December 2021
231. Deputy Bernard J. Durkan asked the Minister for Health the extent to which an evaluation has taken place of the benefits or dangers of vaping or other tobacco smoking alternatives with a view ensuring that the alternatives are not a gateway to return to tobacco smoking; whether and to what extent the health issues are being fully examined; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [59749/21]
View answerAt national level a number of evaluations of the harms and benefits of vaping products have been carried out in recent years. In 2017, the Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA) delivered a health technology assessment (HTA) of the clinical effectiveness and cost effectiveness of pharmaceutical and non-pharmaceutical smoking cessation products and services. In relation to the safety of e-cigarettes, the HIQA assessment concluded that this remains an evolving area of research and that while potentially safer than smoking evidence on long-term safety had yet to be established.
In October of last year, the Health Research Board published the findings of its evidence review on electronic cigarettes. The review focused on the evidence available on three topics; the effectiveness of e-cigarettes for smoking cessation, electronic cigarette use as a gateway to subsequent smoking in adolescents, and on the health harms and benefits of electronic cigarettes and heat - not - burn tobacco products.
The evidence review found that e-cigarettes are not harmless but that they are less harmful than tobacco cigarettes, that e-cigarettes are as effective as nicotine replacement therapies for smoking cessation up to 6 months and that there is a positive association between e-cigarette use and subsequent smoking in adolescents.
The review also made clear that further research was needed on the effects of alternatives such as heat - not - burn tobacco products as there is currently insufficient evidence to draw any conclusions about these products.
The findings of the Health Research Board's research on the use of electronic cigarettes by adolescents underscore the importance of the proposed Public Health (Tobacco and Nicotine Inhaling Products) Bill. The Bill will further regulate nicotine inhaling products by prohibiting their sale to and by persons under the age of 18 and by introducing a licensing system for the retail sale of these products.
