From: AP via StarTribune
Article by: MICHAEL FELBERBAUM, Associated Press
RICHMOND, Va. — Public health officials are “in desperate need of clarity” on electronic cigarettes to help guide policies, the nation’s newly appointed surgeon general said Tuesday.
Dr. Vivek Murthy, whose predecessors have been instrumental in guiding tobacco control, addressed the battery-powered devices that heat liquid nicotine during a stop in Richmond as part of a cross-country listening tour. The U.S. Senate confirmed the 37-year-old physician and Harvard Medical School instructor’s nomination as the country’s senior public health official in December.
“There’ve been theories and ideas around the fact that e-cigarettes may be helpful from a harm reduction perspective in helping people who are already on cigarettes (that) have had trouble quitting actually get off cigarettes,” Murthy said. “If the data indeed bears that out, then I think we should absolutely embrace that and use e-cigarettes in targeted ways.”