Perspective: The NZ Health Research Strategy Discussion Document – Much Scope for Improvement

Monday, July 18th, 2016 | Kate Sloane | No Comments

Professor Nick Wilson

The Government deserves congratulations for coming up with a Health Research Strategy. But the current Discussion Document needs a firmer strategic outlook with greater coherence. In this Perspective Blog a simple SWOT analysis is conducted and an alternative Vision Statement is proposed.

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What does recent biomarker literature say about the likely harm from e-cigarettes?

Monday, July 4th, 2016 | Kate Sloane | 7 Comments

Prof Nick Wilson, Dr Coral Gartner, Prof Richard Edwards

Summary

e-cigaretteThis blog considers recent studies in which the biomarker levels in e-cigarette users (vapers) are compared to those from tobacco smokers. The results are highly variable but all suggest lower levels of risk to vapers relative to tobacco smokers. Yet as the situation with vaping is very dynamic (new products, changing ways people vape) and there is no evidence yet about long-term effects of e-cigarette use on health outcomes, a lot more future research will be needed to get a reasonable understanding of the relative harms.

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