Representatives from the government, academe and consumer advocacy groups converged at the 1st Summit on Harm Reduction organized by The Vapers Philippines recently at the Sulo Riviera Hotel in Quezon City.
Dr. Konstantinos Farsalinos, an international researcher on electronic cigarettes, presented two studies at the multi-stakeholder summit which showed that smokers with asthma and hypertension experienced improved lung function and lower blood pressure after switching to e-cigarettes or personal vaporisers.
A research fellow at the Onassis Cardiac Surgery Center in Athens, Greece, and at the Department of Pharmacy, University of Patras, Greece, and at the Greek National School of Public Health, Farsalinos has been conducting research on e-cigarettes as principal investigator since 2011. As of 2018, he has published more than 60 studies and articles in international peer-reviewed scientific journals about smoking, tobacco harm reduction, and e-cigarettes.
A two-year study by Italian researchers looked at 18 smokers with mild to moderate asthma. All smokers switched to e-cigarettes but two eventually relapsed and resorted to dual use of combustible cigarettes and e-cigarettes.
At the start of the study (prior to switch to e-cigarettes), researchers assessed the subjects’ respiratory symptoms, lung function (through spirometry), airway hyper-responsiveness (level of irritation and constriction), asthma control, asthma exacerbations (asthma attacks) and tobacco consumption. Measurements recorded at baseline prior to switching were compared with those at the follow-up visits at 6, 12 and 24 months.