"Twice as effective as nicotine patches and gum"
50,000 smokers quit every year with the help of e-cigarettes in the UK. This is according to research by Cancer Research UK.
"We seem to have found a good balance between regulation and marketing of e-cigarettes in England. " write the researchers in its report spublished in Addiction magazine this week.
The new study is based on data collected between 2007 and 2016. The researchers interviewed smokers who use e-cigarettes to quit and then followed up their developments one year later.
"This study adds to previous research, clinical studies, which show that e-cigarettes really help smokers quit" says Dr. Emma Beard, Chief Scientist at the University of London, to the magazine The Evening Standard.
Increases the possibility of quitting smoking
Previous research has shown that e-cigarettes are almost twice as effective in smoking cessation compared to traditional nicotine replacement products. Most recently, in January 2019, the Cancer Research UK and the British National Institute for Health research a randomized study with 1000 participants which compared different smoking cessation methods.
1000 people participated in the study and were randomly divided into two groups: one that used chewing gum, patches and sprays and one group where participants were allowed to use e-cigarettes. All of them received support from their local stop-smoking center for a period of a few weeks.
After one year, the nine percent of participants who used traditional means quit smoking without relapsing. Among those who used e-cigarettes, the corresponding figure was 18% of the total.
Less risk of relapse
British the health authority, Public Health of England, say that the studies clearly show that e-cigarettes play a significant role for smokers trying to quit. In addition, they argue that vejpning stands out among the different methods, in that users actually seem to like the products, something that reduces the risk of relapse even after longer periods.
Calls on smokers to use e-cigs
The UK Department of Health has been investing heavily in research on vejpning for some time, actively encouraging smokers to switch from analog cigarettes to e-cigarettes. And this is something that has been appreciated by Cancer Research UK.
"E-cigarettes are a relatively new product, and we do not know all the long-term effects. But we do know, with the research available today, that e-cigarettes harm the user significantly less than regular cigarettes. And it is encouraging that as many as 50,000 smokers a year quit smoking with the help of vejpning," said George Butterworth, Cancer Research UK, to The Evening Standard.
At the same time, researchers are concerned that the growing use of e-cigarettes in the UK stopped slightly since 2015.
The reason is alarmist and, according to the researchers, distorted information about the risks of e-cigarettes. Risks that are not compared to the risks of cigarette smoking.
Misconceptions about nicotine
Only half of UK smokers believe e-cigarettes are much less harmful than cigarettes. This was shown in a study from February 2019. The misconception was highest among smokers who have never tried to vejpa.
"It is possible that smokers choose not to test e-cigarettes due to misconceptions about both nicotine and vejpning. Much of the public debate in our media focuses on the possible harmful effects of e-cigarettes. But we rarely see debate on how harmful cigarettes really are to public health" says Dr. Leonie Brose, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience to the medical journal Medical Express.
According to the statistics, people die 1500 smokers every week in the UK from smoking-related harm. But by correcting misconceptions about nicotine, society can help smokers find a less harmful way to ingest nicotine, says Leonie Brose.
Well, can only refer to my own experiences.
In about 25 attempts to quit chewing gum, patches and the like, there were 25 failures. Never lasted more than a couple of weeks before giving up.
Made 1 attempt with e-cigarettes and it has now lasted for 8 years. Only relapse was 1 cigar, after the birth of our child, which I had to force myself. WORTH IT!!!