Study reveals that vaping is an effective method to quit smoking
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A new study revealed that using electronic cigarettes to quit smoking was more effective than using nicotine patches or nicotine gum, or other traditional smoking cessation tools. The study also showed that vaping has no severe side effects for at least two years.
The study, which was done by Cochrane, a non-profit organization and network of researchers that spans the globe, included 50 independent reviews from more than 8+ countries that all seem to point to the same thing, electronic cigarettes are a more effective smoking cessation tool than traditional nicotine replacement therapy.
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About Cochrane
Cochrane, the institution behind the study, is a British international non-profit organization with over 50,000 researchers, health professionals, and scientists from over 130 countries. Free of commercial interest, the organization aims to provide unbiased medical research that informs healthcare policies and health-related decision making. More than 80% of the World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines use Cochrane reviews, and the most referenced health journal on Wikipedia is the Cochrane Library.
What the study revealed
The study evaluated 50 independent reviews from the USA, UK, Belgium, Canada, South Korea, Poland, Italy, Australia, Greece, South Africa, Switzerland, and Turkey concluded that e-cigarette or vaping was more effective than traditional nicotine replacement therapy methods. This includes nicotine gum, nicotine patch, and lozenges.
The study found that more people could stop smoking for at least six months with electronic cigarettes than traditional nicotine replacement therapy. The researchers also found that nicotine e-liquid can help 10 in 100 people stop smoking than 6 in 100 people who have tried and failed to quit nicotine with nicotine replacement therapy. The study also found that only 4 out of 100 people who try to stop without any support or behavioral treatment are successful.
The study, which used randomized controlled trials, also showed no short-term severe harm (for at least two years) from vaping e-liquid. Professor Peter Hajek, who was the contributing senior author of this study, said that:
"We know from over 100 randomized trials that nicotine replacement treatments, such as nicotine gum or patches, help smokers quit. E-cigarettes are a form of nicotine replacement that is more attractive to smokers, which seems more effective than the earlier products. The results of this new Review of randomized trials of vaping tally with other evidence from cohort and epidemiological studies, suggesting that for many smokers, e-cigarettes represent an effective tool for quitting smoking. It is also important to note that the studies detected no evidence of harm from vaping in people using e-cigarettes for up to two years."
Jamie Hartmann-Boyce, the lead author of the study, added that:
"The randomized evidence on smoking cessation is unchanged since the last version of the Review was initiated. We are encouraged to find many studies underway, particularly as electronic cigarettes are an evolving technology. Since the last version of the Review, 11 new observational and uncontrolled studies have been published. In terms of quitting, these can't provide the same information we get from randomized controlled trials. Still, they contribute further information on the side effects of using electronic cigarettes to quit smoking. None detected any serious side effects, but longer-term data are needed."
John Britton, Emeritus Professor of Respiratory Medicine, University of Nottingham, who did not partake in the project, had this to say:
"This comprehensive review of all data on the efficacy of electronic cigarettes in helping people to quit provides definitive confirmation that electronic cigarettes offer smokers an effective means of quitting, and perhaps even more so than some licensed stop smoking medicines. Therefore, it endorses the UK policy of promoting electronic cigarettes as a consumer product that can help smokers quit smoking completely and supports electronic cigarettes' recommendation in the NHS. Questions over their long-term safety will not be resolved until these products have been in use for many years. Still, all the available evidence indicates that any long term adverse effects are likely to be far smaller than those of smoking tobacco."
Impact on the vaping industry
This spells great news for the vaping industry, which has now known the effectiveness of electronic cigarettes as a smoking cessation tool for almost two decades. One that has helped people quit cigarettes for years now and leave smoking behind, which, according to a new report, is responsible for killing more than 8 million people a year according to the World Health Organization. The same story by the World Health Organization states that around 1.2 million people are indirectly affected by second-hand smoke.
While countries around the world like Canada, New Zealand, and the UK have acknowledged e-cigarettes as powerful tools reducing smoking rates and are actively using them in national public health programs, countries like the United States remain unconvinced about the effectiveness of e-cigarettes as cessation tools.
Due to the quick spread of misinformation, many health professionals in the United States still believe that vaping is just as dangerous as cigarettes. A recent study showed that almost 80% of medical specialists in the United States that treat smoking diseases believe that nicotine causes cancer. And this might be one factor why there is so much apathy toward what vaping and electronic cigarettes have to offer in terms of cessation tools.
Conclusion
Although this is a significant step for the world to recognize vaping as the best smoking cessation tool with less inherent dangers than smoking cigarettes, there are still many critics and naysayers who still believe that cigarette smoking is just as dangerous as vaping.
The added result that electronic cigarettes also had no dangerous side effects for at least two years is also an important discovery and a win for vapers worldwide.
