Photo: Leonardo Oliveira ACOM/UNITAU
Students in the program Master's and Doctorate in Health Sciences UNITAU develop a book with scientific articles related to electronic cigarette consumption. The book is expected to be published in the second half of the year..
May 31st is considered World No Tobacco Day, date established by the World Health Organization. UNITAU's initiative meets the organization's appeal and uses research as a way of proving the harm caused by the consumption of conventional and electronic cigarettes.
“In 10 chapters, we cover everything from cellular damage to the final stage, which is the beginning of the cessation of the habit and all the support. We hope it arrives in several locations, diverse audiences so that we can play our main and motivating role: bring correct and quality information to the population, for academia, based on the social impact that the actions of a postgraduate program should focus on“, explains Prof. Dra. Laís Concilio, coordinator of master's and doctoral programs in Health Sciences.
The book addresses, mainly, electronic cigarettes, which saw an increase in consumption of almost 600% in Brazil between 2018 and 2023, despite being prohibited.
Electronic cigarettes were the subject of Unitalk, the UNITAU podcast. Watch below
According to the World Health Organization (OMS), eight million people die each year from diseases caused by tobacco consumption, one million of them are considered “passive smokers”. PhD student in Health Sciences, a Me. Camila Moreno, oncology nurse at the National Cancer Institute (INCA), explains
“People are aware that smoking is bad for their health.. But people associate a lot with the individual themselves. Tobacco consumption causes dozens of diseases, from asthma to lung cancer. People are aware, but not the conscience of the whole and they also don’t think about the passive smoker”, explains.
Clinical oncologist Cristiane Dias Bittencourt explains the harm caused by cigarettes.
"In the course of time, you have a cumulative effect. People think about cancer a lot. But we have vascular issues. COPD (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease) includes chronic bronchitis and emphysema, which are progressive and irreversible diseases. We have several aspects that undermine our health, until cancer develops. Throughout life, the more the person smokes, the more she accumulates factors that harm her health”, explains.
Electronic cigarettes are banned in Brazil, but still widely consumed. According to the doctor, it is now possible to identify the damage to health, but many studies will still be needed to understand the complete scenario.
“We know that the damage exists. But people consume in different ways, devices can have varying nicotine levels as well. Or what do we know? There will be the mechanism of addiction, maybe even more dependent, because some electronic cigarettes have very high levels of nicotine. We already have a disease called Evali, which is associated with electronic cigarettes. We have damage, tissue involvement, but we have no real and definitive measurement of the degree of this damage”.
ACOM/UNITAU