Leading breast surgeon Kefah Mokbel is increasingly concerned about the potential risks of vaping, believing it may increase the chances of breast cancer. Vape contains chemicals that have been linked to breast cancer in women exposed to the vapours at a younger age.
Leading breast surgeon Kefah Mokbel is increasingly concerned about the potential risks of vaping, believing it may increase the chances of breast cancer.
Vape contains chemicals that have been linked to breast cancer in women exposed to the vapours at a younger age.
Professor Mokbel has called on Ministers of health and education to issue guidance and warnings about the potential risks of the popular e-cigarettes, writing to Health Secretary Matt Hancock and Education Secretary Damian Hinds.
He used research and past experiments to suggest that toxic substances in the vapours that users inhale could trigger tumours in later life.
He warned: "It would be unforgivable if we were to do nothing, only to discover in 30 years’ time that widespread vaping among teenagers in the 2010s and 2020s had triggered a significant number of avoidable cases of breast cancer."
No hard evidence currently exists linking e-cigarette use with breast cancer or any other type of cancer. But Prof Mokbel, the author of more than 200 academic papers and 14 books on breast cancer, said it would be complacent to assume no pattern would emerge in the future.
"What too few people realise is that e-cigarette vapours not only contain addictive nicotine, they also contain numerous potentially toxic chemicals that may well increase lifetime risk of cancer," he said.
E-cigarette vapours have been shown to contain endocrine disrupting chemicals (EDCs), he explained, which can mimic sex hormones such as oestrogen and affect how the body responds to them.
"I have no doubt e-cigarettes are far safer than tobacco, and smokers should be encouraged to switch."
"But given what we know is in e-cigarette vapour, it is my duty as a doctor and father to speak up."
He believes Ministers have a duty to create education programmes to protect young people from the threat to their health.
Read the article by The Daily Mail: Leading British surgeon tells ministers vaping ‘epidemic’ among teenage girls could lead to breast cancer later in life and children should not be allowed to believe they are safe.
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