Dr. Mamudu Authors Editorial on Vaping Risk

Dr. Hadii Mamudu, Associate Professor in the East Tennessee State University College of Public Health’s Department of Health Services Management and Policy, is the lead author of an editorial on this topic in the influential American Journal for Public Health.  The editorial, “Electronic Nicotine Delivery Systems: Recommendations to Regulate Their Use,” emerged from a 2018 Policy Statement that Dr. Mamudu and others wrote for the American Public Health Association.

Dr. Timothy Sanborn with the Medical College of Wisconsin and Dr. Page Dobbs with the University of Oklahoma, Norman are co-authors.

The health risks of electronic nicotine delivery systems (vaping) have been a major news item in the past few months.  It is imperative that the country have a rapid and timely regulatory approach to assure the safety of those who use these products.  A growing body of evidence has demonstrated both the immediate and long-term damage caused by the use of and exposure to electronic nicotine delivery systems,such as potential damage to neurons in the prefrontal cortex and reduction in cell size or quantity within the cerebral cortex and hippocampus.

The editorial makes recommendations to policymakers at federal, state, and local levels.  It also recommends that health educators provide potential users with actual risk information, as opposed to “relative risk” information related to traditional cigarettes; and the authors list policy recommendations in the table titled “recommended regulatory policies for electronic nicotine delivery systems.”  The authors further note that current projections predict more lives will be lost through electronic nicotine delivery systems than saved from those who quit smoking. This net public health harm provides sufficient rationale for strict and immediate regulation of these products.

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