電子煙“騙財”又“害命”?

Is it time to quit vaping?

是時候戒電子煙了嗎？

More than 500 cases of severelung illness in 38 states. Sevendeaths. A proposed federal ban ofmost flavored e-cigarettes andnew efforts in many states tocounter an epidemic of youthvaping.

美國的 38 個州出現了 500 多例嚴重的肺病病例。7 人死亡。美國政府正在擬議一項針對大多數口味電子煙的聯邦禁令，多州採取新措施以應對青少年吸電子煙的現狀。

There's been an avalanche ofvaping news this month, whichleaves many users facing acrucial question: Is it time to quit? Here's a look at the issues.

本月爆發了大量有關電子煙的新聞，這使得許多電子煙菸民面臨一個至關重要的問題：是時候戒電子煙了嗎？以下就是關於這些問題的科普。

— How big is vaping?

電子煙的市場有多大？

E-cigarettes swept onto themarket about a decade ago. They're now a $2.6 billionindustry in the United States, androughly 20,000 vape and smokeshops have sprung up across thecountry in the past few years. There is also a thriving blackmarket for vape pods. A surveylast year found that 10.8 millionAmerican adults used e-cigarettes— and that more than half werealso smoking cigarettes.***

大約十年前，電子煙橫掃（美國）市場。如今在美國，電子煙已經成為了一個價值 26 億美元的產業。在過去幾年中，大約有 2 萬家電子煙店和銷售電子煙配件的商店在全國各地湧現。煙彈黑市也在蓬勃發展。去年的一項研究發現，美國有 1080 萬成年人使用電子煙，其中一半以上也還在抽傳統煙。

— Is vaping safer than smoking?

吸電子煙比吸傳統煙更安全嗎？

There was an idea for a while thate-cigarettes, because they don'tgenerate smoke and tar, weresafer than smoking cigarettes orat least that they could help asmoker shift to a less dangerousalternative.*** But the mysteriousspate of illnesses thrust concernsabout vaping's health effects intothe spotlight.

曾經有一段時間，人們認為吸電子煙比吸傳統香菸更安全，或者至少電子煙可能幫助菸民換一種不那麼威脅健康的選擇，因為電子煙不會產生煙霧和焦油。但是，最近出現了一系列原因不明的疾病病例，這把人們對電子煙健康影響的擔憂推到了聚光燈下。

Dr. Albert Rizzo, chief medicalofficer for the American LungAssociation, noted that theorganization's opposition tovaping predated the outbreak. Hedisputed the perception that e-cigarettes are a safer alternativeand pointed to the lack ofinformation about whatchemicals they contain and thepaucity of research about theeffects of vaping.***

美國肺臟協會的首席醫學官阿爾伯特·裡佐博士指出，該組織在病情爆發之前就反對吸電子煙。對於電子煙是一種更為安全的替代品這一看法，他提出質疑，並指出這是由於缺少電子煙中包含的化學成分的信息，以及缺少對電子煙所造成的影響的研究。

"We have no evidence of whetherit's safe at all. There's just noscientific basis for that." Rizzosaid.

裡佐表示：“我們沒有證據表明電子煙是完全安全的。目前就是沒有科學依據證明這一點。”