Nicotine alternatives such as vapes do not cause cancer, a leading French oncologist has said.
Dr David Khayat said nicotine itself does not cause cancer, as carcinogens come from the burning of tobacco. The combustion that occurs in conventional cigarettes produces thousands of substances, and a percentage of these are carcinogenic.
Vapes greatly reduce harmful substances
He added that heated tobacco products and vapes deliver nicotine with significantly reduced harmful substances compared to traditional cigarettes, and should therefore be more widely used as a way to help smokers quit.
“If we look closely at the statistics, we will find that in the coming years, we will have 60 million deaths worldwide due to lung cancer. Let’s do something to prevent that,” Dr Khayat told Cypriot newspaper Philelefthero.
Dr Khayat is the Head of the Department of Medical Oncology at Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital, in Paris, France. He is a leading researcher in oncology and clinical pharmacology, with at least 500 peer-reviewed publications to his name. He was also President of the French National Cancer Institute from 2004 to 2006.
The expert also criticised the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) stance against harm reduction. He said harm reduction acknowledges that it is difficult to eliminate risky behaviours and aims to mitigate their effects.
Most smokers with cancer do not quit
More than 64 per cent of smokers who develop cancer do not quit after their diagnosis.
Dr Khayat said: “That’s why what I do and recommend now for those who don’t quit smoking is to try to reduce the harm it causes. This could potentially be achieved through alternative smoking products.”
Dr Khayat cited the potential of alternative nicotine products to help smokers quit cigarettes, calling for regulatory frameworks that balance access for smokers with preventing youth uptake.
The fewer carcinogens, the better
“The goal remains smoking cessation. But because there will always be some who do not quit, we must include harm reduction in our efforts. The fewer carcinogens that enter the human body, the smaller the harm,” he said.
He said if all smokers who do not quit smoking realise that there are better alternative options than cigarettes, and more people make the change, “then we will gradually see the effects on public health.”
Anton Israel, president of the Nicotine Consumers Union of the Philippines, welcomed the medical expert’s insights.
“We have achieved new smoke-free technologies that remove the harm from nicotine consumption,” he said. “Products such as e-cigarettes, heated tobacco, and nicotine pouches reduce consumers’ exposure to carcinogens substantially.”
Dr Khayat’s comments come after a leading cardiologist told a doctors’ convention that nicotine is not carcinogenic and does not cause heart disease.
Professor Reuven Zimlichman, Director of the Institute for Quality in Medicine at the Israeli Medical Association, explained that nicotine is addictive but does not harm the body like smoking does.
Smoking causes eight million deaths globally per year, while vaping is not fatal or linked to any smoking-related diseases. Zimlichman said smokers should consider switching to vapes or other safer nicotine alternatives if they find it hard to quit cigarettes without an aid.
Tobacco harm reduction is expected to be a key topic at the upcoming WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control Conference of the Parties (COP 11) in Geneva in November.
