Switching cigarettes for vaping 'more likely than ever to help smokers quit'

Switching from cigarettes to vaping is now more likely than ever to help smokers quit, according to a new study.

Researchers have found that smokers who switch to electronic cigarettes are now more likely to stop smoking regular cigarettes, whereas in the past they mostly continued smoking both. Since their emergence in 2007 e-cigarettes or vapes have shot up in popularity, causing controversy in recent years for their fun colours and flavours which appeal to kids.

For this reason the government have been working on plans to ban disposable vapes from the UK, and phase tobacco out all together. Scientists have been debating for years on whether vaping actually helps people who smoke combustible cigarettes to quit smoking, which was their intended purpose. Some research suggests improved cigarette quitting-related outcomes with e-cigarette use, while other research suggests the opposite.

The new paper, published in the journal Nicotine & Tobacco Research, has found that in recent years e-cigarettes have become more effective in helping smokers to quit traditional cigarettes. The team examined differences in real-world trends in population-level cigarette discontinuation rates from 2013 to 2021, comparing US adults who smoked combustible cigarettes and used e-cigarettes with US adults who smoked combustible cigarettes and did not use e-cigarettes.

Using data from a national longitudinal study of tobacco use from people from all over the United States, the researchers found that between 2013 and 2016, rates of discontinuing cigarette smoking among adults were statistically indistinguishable between those who vaped and those who did not. But the quit rates changed in subsequent years.

The team found that between 2018 and 2021 only 20 per cent of smokers who did not use e-cigarettes stopped smoking but some 30.9 per cent of smokers who did vape stopped smoking quit. The team say that their findings suggest vapes do help smokers to quit and this updated research should be considered when making public health decisions such as bans on the electronic products.

Assistant Professor Karin Kasza, of Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center in New York, said: "Our findings here suggest that the times have changed when it comes to vaping and smoking cessation for adults in the US. While our study doesn't give the answers as to why vaping is associated with cigarette quitting in the population today when it wasn't associated with quitting years ago, design changes leading to e-cigarettes that deliver nicotine more effectively should be investigated. This work underscores the importance of using the most recent data to inform public health decisions."