Zohra Yasmin, Ana Cristina Gomes, Gianpiero Calabrese, Dr Reem Kayyali and Dr Shereen Nabhani-Gebara.
Presenter(s)
Ana Cristina Gomes Lecturer in Pharmacy Practice and Placement Tutor , School of Pharmacy and Chemistry, Faculty of Science, Engineering and Computing, Kingston University, London
Abstract
Electronic cigarettes (e-cigs) exclusively established themselves in community pharmacies, through the demands-led booming market. With current talks introduced within the European Union for potential regulations in 2016, the future of e-cigs within community pharmacies remains still undetermined. This survey-based study aims at evaluating the views of community pharmacists on their use, safety and possible effectiveness as a quit smoking tools. Also, this project seeks pharmacists’ views on future regulations and whether they are selling e-cigs. Pharmacies (n=92) were surveyed across London.
With the majority of pharmacies already selling e-cigs (73%) but almost unanimously pleading the enforcement of regulations (97%), it is clear that community pharmacists can see the potential of e-cigs to become an official tool to aid smoking cessation and avoiding relapse. Community pharmacists are prominently concerned about patient safety; in fact despite scarce reports of adverse effects (‘none’ in 80% of cases) they believe safety is still an issue, especially regarding excipients (42%) and nicotine content (34%).
E-cigs are currently unregulated, hence there are no clear guidelines for pharmacists selling e-cigarettes; if these devices will be marketed as medicinal products, community pharmacists look forward to regulations so to conduct their duties in a more confident and legislated fashion.
Source of funding: Kingston University, Faculty of Science, Computing and Engineering
