Farsalinos Explains Why Vape Flavours Are Important to Adults

Renowned cardiologist and smoking cessation researcher Dr. Konstantinos Farsalinos, reiterated that vape flavours are crucial at helping smokers switch to safer nicotine alternatives.

Diane Caruana

March 14, 2022

The risk of dependence on nicotine and the risks associated with e-cigarette use, cannot and shouldn’t be compared to the risks from smoking.

While anti-vaping entities like the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, keep arguing that vape flavours are hooking young people on nicotine, and fueling the so-called “youth e-cigarette epidemic,” tobacco harm reduction experts such as Farsalinos, keep highlighting why flavours are crucial in helping adult smokers quit. “Everyone loves flavors, from the youngest to the oldest. That is human nature. You want to use something that is interesting,” said Dr. Konstantinos Farsalinos as quoted by Filter.

The researcher has recently published, “The Case for Flavours in Tobacco Harm Reduction, to Save Lives”, a paper which discusses the link between flavoured nicotine products and smoking cessation success in detail. The report highlights that ultimately flavour bans are a form of prohibition, which only fuel the growth of massive black markets and also lead to increased smoking rates, as many vapers would turn back to smoking.

Discussing the report in a recent episode on Regulator Watch, Farsalinos discussed Health Canada’s recently proposed ban, saying that their case for such a ban may be crumbling as evidence keeps indicating its potentially negative impact on public health.

The alleged teen vaping epidemic

In the past Farsalinos has spoken about the alleged teen vaping epidemic explaining why considering an increase in e-cig use an epidemic, is a flawed premise. He had explained the risk of dependence on nicotine and the risks associated with e-cigarette use cannot and shouldn’t be compared to the risks from smoking. He added that the duty of public health officials is to weigh the benefits and adverse effects of any intervention and check where the balance lies. Farsalinos adds that in the case of e-cigarettes, the benefits outweigh the adverse effects, and this needs to be taken into account.

“Even if e-cigarettes are causally linked to subsequent smoking (which has not been proven to be the case, the common liability phenomenon is a much more plausible explanation), the contribution of e-cigarettes to smoking prevalence is minimal. We should not forget that all these years that e-cigarette use (mainly experimentation) was increasing among youth, the smoking prevalence has substantially declined. This is why I mentioned above that the smoking rates should be mentioned when the data are presented,” he explained.