New tobacco products, a threat for tobacco control and public health of Mexico

• Main Authors: Luz Myriam Reynales-Shigematsu, Inti Barrientos-Gutiérrez, Luis Zavala-Arciniega, Edna Arillo-Santillán
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Instituto Nacional de Salud Pública 2018-09-01
• Series: Salud Pública de México
• Subjects: cigarrillos electrónicos; Sistemas Electrónicos de Liberación de Nicotina; consumo de tabaco; efectos adver-sos; prevención y control; legislación y jurisprudencia; México
• Online Access: http://www.saludpublica.mx/index.php/spm/article/view/9682

The new tobacco products that include electronic cigarettes (called “E Cig”, “e-hookahs”, “mods”, “vape-pens”), electronic nicotine delivery systems (SEAN, Spanish acronym), similar systems without nicotine (SSSN, Spanish acronym) and alternative nicotine consumption systems (SACN, Spanish acronim), are positioned in the global market with a discourse of harm reduction and risk minimization. This manuscript summarizes the scientific evidence and present a regulatory proposal for this technological innovation, oriented to guide the decision making of legislators, government institutions and organized civil society. The scientific evidence concludes that there is no safe tobacco product for health, the addictive nature of nicotine and the health damages for children, adolescents and pregnant women is the fundamental argument. These new products promote the transition to conventional cigarettes and have not shown efficacy for smoking cessation, on the contrary, they promote dual use. High-level regulation must be formulated without the intervention of the manufacturers or institutions with a conflict of interest in the context of the complete and integral World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control implementation.