From the Galway City Tribune – Vaping and e-cigarette usage has not been linked to the admission of “significant numbers” at Galway hospitals.

A meeting of Regional Health Forum West was told that despite anecdotal reports of the damage caused by vaping, very few patients had presented to hospitals with health issues as a result of e-cigarette usage.

Chief Executive Officer of the Saolta Health Care Group, Tony Canavan (pictured), made the comments in reply to a question from Leitrim-based councillor Felim Gurn who said he had been told “the damage done over 30 years of smoking” was less than that caused “three years vaping”.

Mr Canavan provided information from National Tobacco Free Ireland which states: “It is highly likely that chronic use of e-cigarettes will induce pathological changes in both the heart and lungs”.

He said a Department of Health report found that most of the observed clinical harms were due to acute events associated with the use of e-cigarettes.

“They included poisonings (mainly nicotine and some e-liquid constituents), injuries (mainly burns and some fractures), and respiratory diseases (mainly injuries to the lungs and exacerbation of asthma).

“There were fatalities among the poisonings and respiratory disease cases, and long-term disability among some burn cases. Both the poisoning cases and the respiratory disease cases highlighted a possible association between e-cigarettes, and the use of other drugs such as alcohol, synthetic cannabinoids and opiates,” states the report.

Mr Canavan said while the HSE does not recommend the use of e-cigarettes, hospitals locally had not seen patients presenting with illnesses as a direct result of their usage.

“The short answer is no – we haven’t seen a significant number.

“There are lots of comments, opinions and ideas but maybe not a whole lot of evidence at the moment,” said Mr Canavan.