Exploding e-cigarettes putting lives at risk

The safety of electronic cigarettes has been plunged into further doubt after an electronic cigarette user almost had his legs blown off due to one of the devices ‘exploding like a grenade’.

Medics that initially treated 48-year-old David Aspinall from Wigan, thought he had been the unfortunate victim of a gun attack when they first saw his gruesome, serve injuries.

Mr Aspinall’s life was almost destroyed by the exploding e-cigarette as his home quickly set ablaze and he then had to spend 9 days in hospital recovering from the traumatic ordeal.

He was in the middle of using the device when it overheated and exploded, resulting in shards of metal ripping into his limbs and his home being set on fire.

Speaking to The Sun, Mr Aspinall, who now faces up to three years of skin grafts to recover, said: “It glowed and burned in my hand. I dropped it and it exploded. There was lots of blood, a huge hole in one leg and a gash in the other. It could have blown my head off. The surgeon said it was like someone had used a gun.”

Even though ex-decorator Mr Aspinall had suffering shocking injuries and lost a litre of blood in the process, he managed to reach his neighbour, who likened the scene to that in a horror film.

Mr Aspinall has now reverted to conventional cigarettes, arguing – maybe questionably – that they are the safer option: He added: “I’m back on ciggies. It’s safest”, and is now proceeding to sue the maker of the Mutant Clone e-cigarette for compensation. The shop who sold him the device has blamed faulty batteries for the disaster.

This is not the first time an electronic cigarette has exploded however, and questions will now be raised about the safety of them.

. In August of this year, David Thomson, 62, died at home in Wallasey, Merseyside, after an e-cigarette he had left to charge then exploded and ignited oxygen equipment in the same room.

. In April of this year, pensioner Jen Booth was on a ward at Wythenshawe Hospital, Manchester, when an e-cigarette ignited her oxygen supply and engulfed her in flames. The 65-year-old suffered serious burns.

. In the same month Jen Booth suffered burns, a woman in Barking, East London required hospital treatment due to smoke inhalation and shock after her flat was set alight – all because of an e-cigarette being used with an incompatible charger.

. Also in April, CCTV managed to capture the moment an e-cigarette exploded into flames at the Buck Inn Hotel in Richmond, South-West London. Pub worker Laura Baty, 18, was fortunate to escape severe injury.

It is perhaps for these reasons for many are calling for much tighter regulations on the sale of e-cigarettes. With Stoptober still having almost a fortnight to run, it could be wise for smokers to try and quit smoking for good with smoking cessation treatment, such as Pfizer’s Champix. This can mimic the effect of nicotine on the body, reduce the urge to smoke, and even lessen the enjoyment of cigarettes if you do give-in to willpower and smoke whilst on the treatment. It is available today from Medical Specialists® Pharmacy from the drastically lowered price of as little as £27.48* per pack
(*based on a private prescription price).

Cancer patients could be more nicotine dependent with e-cigarettes

A new study into e-cigarettes has put further fuel onto the fire about just how useful a tool they are in helping smokers successfully quit smoking, after researchers found cancer patients who used c-cigs to try and stop smoking actually ended up more addicted to nicotine.

The findings have been published online by the journal Cancer, and will undoubtedly spark further doubts regarding the devices  that have come under scrutiny from the World Health Organisation in recent years, who want tighter regulations on them and a banning of them being used indoors.

The new study was conducted by researchers at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Centre in New York City, who assessed 1,074 cancer patients who were smokers and that had signed up to stop smoking schemes at cancer centre’s between 2012 and 2013.

The researchers discovered a three-fold rise in e-cigarette use from 2012 to 2013 – increasing from 10.6% to 38.5%.

When the patients’ enrolled into the smoking programme, the researchers determined that those also using e-cigarettes were more dependent on nicotine compared to those not using them, had tried to quit smoking on more occasions, and had a higher risk of developing cancer of the lungs, head, or neck.

During a follow-up assessment, it was found that seven-day abstinence rates were comparable with both e-cigarette users and non-users. Researchers found rates of 44.4% for e-cigarette users and 43.1% for non-users. By the time the study came to a conclusion, those using e-cigarettes were just as likely as non-users to be smoking regular cigarettes.

Dr Jamie Ostroff, lead researcher said: “Consistent with recent observations of increased e-cigarette use in the general population, our findings illustrate that e-cigarette use among tobacco-dependent cancer patients has increased within the past two years.”

She admitted further studies would be needed due to limitations with this one, saying: “Controlled research is needed to evaluate the potential harms and benefits of e-cigarettes as a potential cessation approach for cancer patients. In the meantime, oncologists should advise all smokers to quit smoking traditional combustible cigarettes, encourage use of FDA-approved cessation medications, refer patients for smoking cessation counselling, and provide education about the potential risks and lack of known benefits of long-term e-cigarette use.”

One such smoking cessation treatment is Pfizer’s highly popular Champix, of which Medical Specialists® Pharmacy have been inundated with requests for recently in the run up to Stoptober on 1 October.

Stoptober is an annual campaign run by Public Health England, which challenges all smokers to abstain for 28 days. The idea for 28 days of no smoking is that it is believed smokers are 5 times more likely to stop smoking if they can last the duration of the challenge. Keep checking the Medical Specialists® website for more information about Stoptober in the run up to it, including more to get involved and support available for smokers looking to quit.

E-cigarettes found to contain dangerous chemicals

Electronic cigarettes are not the harmless devices their manufacturers would have you believe and are “potentially carcinogenic” according to a French consumer advocacy group, who say that some are even as harmful as normal tobacco.

The report, published by monthly magazine 60 Millions Consommateurs (60 Million Consumers), details the findings of the National Consumers’ Institute who utilised a new and intelligent method to analyse 10 separate reusable and disposable e-cigarette models.

Their analysis follows the French government unveiling plans back in May this year to prohibit electronic cigarettes from public places in France, which may cause some degree of upset to the estimated one million smokers of the devices in the country.

According to the National Consumers’ Institute, the tests showed that three out of 10 e-cigarettes contained a similar quantity of formaldehyde as regular cigarettes, in addition to other hazardous chemicals such as acrolein, chrome, nickel and propylene glycol – which can cause various respiratory and immune deficiency problems.

Thomas Laurenceau, editor of the National Consumer Insitute magazine, wrote: “We detected a significant quantity of carcinogenic molecules in the vapour of these cigarettes which have thus far gone undetected. In three models out of ten the levels of the carcinogenic compound formaldehyde come close to those of a conventional cigarette. The highly toxic molecule acrolein was also detected in the vapours of e-cigarettes, sometimes at levels even higher than in traditional cigarettes.”

However, the report was also scathing in its assessment of certain models not having safety caps as the nicotine levels within the liquid of an electronic cigarette may prove lethal if ingested by children.
Mr Laurenceau continued: “It’s not a reason to ban them, but a good reason to control them.”

Just five months ago during an interview with a radio station, French health expert Professor Bertrand Dauzenberg spoke of his belief that e-cigarettes were counter-productive and having the opposite affect that they were meant for, commenting: “These electronic cigarettes could also lead children to start smoking and sale should be banned to minors. However for heavy smokers, I believe these will reduce the health risks, but the best way to quit smoking is the patch or chewing gum.”

The furore in France follows similar apprehensions regarding the safety of e-cigarettes in the UK, following the announcement in June that from 2016 The Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) will regulate e-cigarettes as medicines when new European-wide tobacco laws are due to be introduced.

This means electronic cigarette manufacturers will face much stricter regulations than previously, being forced to adhere to strict safety standards or risk a ban on the sale of their products. Part of the concern is that e-cigarettes contain nicotine, which can be highly addictive and can lead to heart problems.

Perhaps quitting smoking, and not just reverting to e-cigarettes, is the recommended path to take for smokers. It is clear that many e-cigarettes and all regular cigarettes can cause a varying degree of health problems. Fortunately, Medical Specialists Pharmacy is able to help you quit smoking with the aid of the smoking cessation medication Champix, which mimics the effect of nicotine on the body, reducing the urge to smoke and relieving withdrawal symptoms. It can also decrease the enjoyment you experience of smoking if you are still smoking whilst on the treatment.

Are electronic cigarettes safe?

Lately,  more and more people are turning to electronic cigarettes (E-cigarettes) to help with smoking cessation. In fact in the UK around 650,000 smokers are thought to be using the inhalers, which look like pens or cigarettes, to help kick the habit.

That number is expected to top 1 million this year with the industry worth £150m in the UK and $520m in theUS. Clearly this is an industry on the rise, but are E-cigarettes truly safe as they claim and has enough research been conducted to confirm this?

One of the main concerns is over the lack of regulation. At present the devices, which are all imported fromChina, do not have to undergo any safety checks before being put on sale in the high street.

Health Ministers Simon Burns expressed his concern about the E- cigarettes when he said: “The available data suggests that there can be great variability in the content of electronic cigarettes, both in the amount of nicotine present and also in relation to other potentially toxic substances.”
“Some electronic cigarettes have been tested by local authority trading standards departments and have been found to pose a potential danger to consumers.”

In fact certain brands have been found to contain high levels of poisonous chemicals including tobacco specific nitrosamines, a substance given off by nicotine which has been shown to cause cancer in rats, Diethylene glycol, a poisonous chemical which is fatal in exceptionally high doses and then there is the fact that the actual nicotine itself has been found in very high levels in some brands.
With all this evidence in mind the Government’s Drugs Watchdog, the Medicine and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), will make a decision next spring on whether to introduce stricter checks.

Tellingly a New York State Assembly has voted overwhelmingly 125-0 to ban E-cigarettes and they have already been banned in Australia, Brazil, Canada, Israel, Mexico and New Zealand. In other countries such as Finland, Malaysia and Singapore, they are under restriction and such rulings are pending in other countries.

Despite all of this, the Government’s Drugs Watchdog the (MHRA) does not want to ban electronic cigarettes completely as it could lead people to go back to ordinary cigarettes. This is a view echoed by Deborah Arnott, spokesman for the charity Action on smoking and health: “We certainly wouldn’t want smokers to think it’s better to go back to using cigarettes rather than E-cigarettes. We just want to see them properly regulated, presently they are made in China but they are not properly regulated on how much nicotine they contain or on their safety quality.”

E-cigarettes are part of a long line of drugs used to help people kick the habit. Before E-cigarettes there was nicotine gum and patches which had limited success but more recently in 2007 a new drug was released called Champix, a drug which contains no nicotine and works by stimulating the nicotine receptors in the brain and thus relieves the craving and withdrawal symptoms you can get when you stop smoking.