Hospital emergency departments in five UK cities will offer smoking patients e-cigarettes to help them quit.
"We want to plant the idea in the minds of smokers who haven't thought about e-cigarettes before," says Caitlin Notley, a professor of addiction science who is leading the project.
A starter kit with e-liquid and instructions on how to use them. This is what staff at UK hospitals will offer smoking patients visiting the emergency department. The project is part of a larger study on how e-cigarettes work for smoking cessation. The researchers hope to involve around 1,000 smokers in the study, which is funded by the National Institute for Health Research.
"We see 24 million patients in A&E every year, a quarter of whom are smokers. This is a good opportunity to encourage patients to quit smoking," said emergency physician Ian Pope in a statement. Press release from the University of East Anglia.
E-cigarettes twice as effective
British authorities want to drastically reduce the number of smokers in the UK. The goal is to reduce smoking from 14% to 5% by 2030, and e-cigarettes are currently the most popular method of quitting among Brits. At the same time, a report from the influential Cochrane Review. that e-cigarettes are not only more popular, but also twice as effective in smoking cessation, compared to traditional methods (nicotine medicines).
"Electronic cigarettes provide a similar experience to that of a cigarette. They hold it in their hand and inhale a smoke-like vapour. It becomes an attractive option for smokers. Especially if they have tried to quit before and failed." Says Caitlin Noteley to BBC News. "We also know that they are significantly less harmful than traditional cigarettes. And that they help smokers to quit smoking."
To evaluate the efforts
The study will run for 30 months, during which time participants will report regularly on how the intervention is working. Smokers are given two options: an e-cigarette, instructions and information on nearby stop smoking centres, or just information on smoking cessation and contact details of a stop smoking centre.
"We will look more closely at which participants succeed in quitting smoking in both groups. Then we can judge which intervention works best," says Mr Perez. Caitlin Notley. "At the same time, we will get an idea of what it would cost to carry out similar actions across the country".
According to The UK Department of Health smokers can reduce the risk of nicotine addiction by almost 95 per cent if they switch from smoking to vejping. The agency continuously monitors research on e-cigarettes in the report "Vaping in England - an evidence update", which has been updated annually since 2016. As vejpkollen previously reported, hospitals in the UK have for some time now allowed vejping in the hospital area, while smoking will be completely banned.
