According to the Royal College of Physicians, the potential harm from vaping e-cigarettes is only about 5 per cent of the harm caused by smoking cigarettes.
Others argue that it is impossible to determine precisely how much less the potential for harm is.
“But what is clear is that they do not have the combustion element that smoking cigarettes have, which makes regular smoking so dangerous,” [Karl Erik Lund, senior researcher from the Norwegian Institute of Public Health] says.
The combustion in cigarettes releases harmful substances.
However, e-cigarettes are still prohibited for sale in Norway.
The Minister of Health and Care Services, Ingvild Kjerkol, now proposes to implement the lifting of the ban on nicotine-containing e-cigarettes, but to ban flavours. Only e-cigarettes with tobacco flavour would be allowed for sale.
Kjerkol has also suggested banning the online sale of all nicotine products, including e-cigarettes.
Therefore, Lund believes that the government is giving with one hand and taking away with the other.
“Most people use liquids with berry or fruit flavours,” Karl Erik Lund points out.
Senior researcher Lund and his colleague Tord Finne Vedøy now warn that this could have unintended consequences: It may hinder smokers’ motivation to switch from life-threatening cigarettes to a harm-reducing alternative.
