Unaffiliated, Sydney, Australia.
National Centre for Youth Substance Use Research, The University of Queensland, St Lucia, Queensland, Australia.
Addiction. 2023 Jun;118(6):1184-1192. doi: 10.1111/add.16143. Epub 2023 Feb 20.
This paper critically analyses a statement by Australia's National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) on e-cigarettes in May 2022 that will be used to guide national policy. We reviewed the evidence and the conclusions drawn in the NHMRC Statement. In our view, the Statement is not a balanced reflection of the benefits and risks of vaping because it exaggerates the risks of vaping and fails to compare them to the far greater risks of smoking; it uncritically accepts evidence of harms from e-cigarettes while adopting a highly sceptical attitude towards evidence of their benefits; it incorrectly claims that the association between adolescent vaping and subsequent smoking is causal; and it understates the evidence of the benefits of e-cigarettes in assisting smokers to quit. The Statement dismisses the evidence that vaping is probably already having a positive net public health effect and misapplies the precautionary principle. Several sources of evidence supporting our assessment were published after the NHMRC Statement's publication and are also referenced. The NHMRC Statement on e-cigarettes does not present a balanced assessment of the available scientific literature and fails to meet the standard expected of a leading national scientific body.
这篇论文批判性地分析了澳大利亚国家健康与医学研究委员会（NHMRC）在 2022 年 5 月发表的一份关于电子烟的声明，该声明将被用于指导国家政策。我们审查了 NHMRC 声明中的证据和得出的结论。在我们看来，该声明并没有平衡地反映电子烟的利弊，因为它夸大了电子烟的风险，却没有将其与吸烟的更大风险进行比较；它不加批判地接受了电子烟危害的证据，同时对其益处的证据采取了高度怀疑的态度；它错误地声称青少年吸电子烟与随后吸烟之间存在因果关系；它还低估了电子烟帮助吸烟者戒烟的益处的证据。该声明驳回了电子烟可能已经产生了积极的净公共卫生效果的证据，并错误地运用了预防原则。支持我们评估的几个证据来源在 NHMRC 声明发布后发表，也被引用。该 NHMRC 电子烟声明没有对现有科学文献进行平衡评估，也没有达到一个领先的国家科学机构的预期标准。
