Nicotine Prescriptions In Australia and Nicotine Vaping Products
What Is Vaping?
Vaping is another term for an e-cigarette. The vape is a battery powered device that contains a liquid. Vaping liquids can contain nicotine for use as nicotine replacement as part of a smoking cessation program. Vaping is Australia’s most popular quitting aid and is significantly more effective than nicotine replacement therapy.
The difference between smoking and vaping is that smoking delivers nicotine by burning tobacco. Smoking is dangerous as the toxins produced by burning tobacco damage your body and cause lethal smoking related illnesses. Vaping delivers nicotine by heating a liquid in a much less harmful way. Vaping is a much safer alternative than smoking cigarettes. Vaping is not harmless, but it is much less harmful than smoking.
Is nicotine vaping safer than smoking?
Vaping is at least 95% safer than smoking according to the Royal College of Physicians. This estimate is based on independent reviews of the scientific evidence by both Public Health England and the UK Royal College of Physicians.
“Although it is not possible to precisely quantify the long-term health risks associated with e-cigarettes, the available data suggest that they are unlikely to exceed 5% of those associated with smoked tobacco products and may well be substantially lower than this figure – Royal College of Physicians”.
Most of the dangerous toxins in cigarette smoke are not present in vapor. When smokers switch to vaping, levels of toxins and carcinogens measured in the blood, saliva and urine (‘biomarkers’) are substantially lower and for many toxins are the same as for a non-smoker. The risk of cancer from vaping has been independently estimated to be <0.5% of the risk from smoking.
Switching from cigarettes to vaping is a way to immediately minimize harm.
How to get a nicotine vaping prescription in Australia
In Australia, it is illegal to buy or sell nicotine for use in e-cigarettes without a prescription from an Australian doctor that is an authorized prescriber of nicotine vaping products.
Quitmate doctors are Australian registered doctors that are authorized to write nicotine vaping prescriptions.
If you have been unable to quit with conventional (first line) treatment, Quitmate doctors may consider vaping nicotine as a safer alternative to cigarette smoking and provide nicotine prescriptions when appropriate. Electronic prescriptions can be written instantly and delivery organized with one of Medmate’s 1200 pharmacies nationally.
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