"WHO" warns against electronic cigarettes

According to a report from the World Health Organization presented in Rio de Janeiro, electronic cigarettes are "without a doubt harmless". The report advised people who want to quit not to use it.

The electronic cigarette emits steam caused by heating the liquid placed inside at high temperature. Most of these liquids contain nicotine.

The growing popularity of these cigarettes since their introduction in the mid-1990s has raised concerns among lawmakers and global health authorities who fear that smoking will encourage young people to smoke.

According to the report of the World Health Organization, these cigarettes expose the user to substances less toxic than traditional cigarettes, "but they pose health risks".

The report stresses the need to monitor the consumption of these products and to promote policies to prevent and protect individuals from smoking and to help quit smoking and to warn of adverse effects and compliance with the prevention of smoking. advertising and to increase taxes.

"Although the level of risk badociated with e-cigarettes has not been decisively measured, it is undoubtedly harmful and needs to be subjected to controls," says the statement from the WHO. But the organization pointed out that there was no evidence that these cigarettes were effective in helping quit smoking.

The organization also warned of the "immediate and real threat" of misinformation of tobacco companies about electronic cigarettes.

At the end of June, San Francisco became the first major US city to block the sale of electronic cigarettes on its territory. China, which has the largest number of smokers in the world, plans to strengthen its laws on this type of cigarette.

Smoking kills eight million people a year.