Addiction Researcher on E-Cigarettes
E-cigarettes are often heavily vilified in Germany in particular—and by some pretty high-profile voices. eGarage, a German online magazine, spoke to an addiction researcher about it.
eGarage put its questions to addiction researcher Heino Stöver, a professor at the University of Applied Sciences in Frankfurt. As you may know, the German Cancer Research Center in particular is fiercely critical of e-cigarettes. You could almost think the research center is worried that if too many smokers switch, it might run out of customers.
Mr. Stöver, however, believes the problem lies solely with the people involved.
That said—and Mr. Stöver seems to take the same view—there may also be some unhealthy coziness with the healthcare sector at play. Other forms of nicotine replacement therapy, such as Nicorette, are viewed favourably. In reality, e-cigarettes clearly pose a threat to the pharmaceutical industry, whose products may not work for most people, but which, one way or another, will always make money from smokers.
When pharmaceutical substitutes don’t work for someone, there is still always a market for bronchial medication and cough syrup.
Mr. Stöver is also very clear that the studies speak for themselves – e-cigarettes are not a gateway to nicotine use. Almost everyone who vapes previously smoked. According to Mr. Stöver, the reason is that e-cigarettes lack the countless toxins found in tobacco cigarettes, which are needed to create a strong dependency.
In short, the addiction expert believes e-cigarettes are anything but a devil’s product! You can find the full article with the addiction researcher’s interview here at eGarage:
A detailed study by Prof. Stöver on e-cigarettes is due to be published at the end of January. Of course, we’ll be happy to report on it.
