Exhaled Carbon Monoxide Levels in Forty Resistant to Cessation Male Smokers after Six Months of Full Switch to Electronic Cigarettes (e-Cigs) or to A Tobacco Heating Systems (THS)

Fabio Beatrice and Giuseppina Massaro
Additional contact information
Fabio Beatrice: ENT Department and No Smoke Center, St. John Hospital (Head: Beatrice F.), ASL City of Turin, 10154 Turin, Italy
Giuseppina Massaro: Certified Coach—Free Researcher, 10124 Turin, Italy

IJERPH, 2019, vol. 16, issue 20, 1-6

Abstract: Cigarette smoke releases several toxic chemicals and carcinogens including carbon monoxide (CO). This study examined the levels of exhaled CO in smokers switching to electronic cigarettes (e-Cigs) or a tobacco heating system (THS) and their level of compliance six months after switching. On the basis of their own preferences, 40 male smokers unwilling or unable to stop smoking were switched to e-Cigs or THSs for six months (20 subjects in each group). Nicotine addiction and levels of carbon monoxide in the exhaled breath (eCO) were measured at baseline (the latter also at six months). The Shapiro Wilk test, graphical methods, Student T test or Mann–Whitney test were used to assess the normal distribution of variables and differences between the two groups after six months. The two groups showed no difference at baseline, but a significant higher addiction score in smokers choosing THS. E-Cig and THS showed significant reduced levels of eCO (both %COHb and COppm) after six months, which were within the range of non-smoker status. Reduced levels of %COHb did not significantly differ between the two groups, whilst the THS group had a significantly lower reduction in levels of COppm vs the e-Cig group ( p < 0.05). Both e-Cigs and THSs are capable of significantly reducing eCO at least in the medium term, hence constituting a viable tobacco harm reduction approach in smokers who are unwilling or unable to stop smoking.

Keywords: tobacco harm reduction; exhaled carbon monoxide; e-Cig; THS (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/16/20/3916/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/16/20/3916/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:16:y:2019:i:20:p:3916-:d:276755

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().