December 2014

Editorial The European Association of Dental Public Health conference resolution on the control of e-cigarettes; Or “You have to be a bit crazy to carry on smoking conventional cigarettes when there are e-cigarettes available” On the 12th June 2014, at their 19th Scientific Congress, the European Association of Dental Public Health (EADPH), at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, drafted a conference resolution calling for control of the availability of e-cigarettes (and other unlicensed nicotine-containing products). This resolution was subsequently ratified by the EADPH Executive Council and is posted on the EADPH website (www.eadph.org). The conference resolution stated; “Delegates at the European Association of Dental Public Health 19th annual scientific congress note the uncertainties surrounding electronic cigarettes in their manufacture, safety, marketing, advertising, regulation and long term general health and oral health outcomes. This conference calls on national governments to regulate electronic cigarettes and other unlicensed nicotine-containing products in the same way as existing tobacco products. This is to support rather than undermine current tobacco restrictions to maintain and improve the oral health of their national populations, especially younger citizens.” In the United Kingdom, over two million people are users (ASH, 2014). E-cigarettes are becoming popular through an enormous and expanding range of products with diverse contents and actions – at least 466 e-cigarette brands and 7764 unique flavours (Zhu et al., 2014). This diversity of products has engendered the term electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS) to encompass e-cigarettes, vapourisers, shisha pens, hookah pens, etc. They are designed to match the experience of smoking and usually contain nicotine albeit nicotine is comparatively less harmful than the other constituents in tobacco. “tobacco users smoke primarily for the nicotine but die primarily from the tar” (Russell, 1976).