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E-Cigarettes Linked To Helping People Quit Smoking, Says Study (theverge.com)
According to a new study, electronic cigarettes help people trying to quit smoking. The Verge reports: For the study, published today in the journal BMJ, researchers analyzed survey data from over 160,000 people spanning almost 15 years. They found that smokers who used e-cigs tried to quit smoking more often and succeeded (for at least three months) more often than smokers who didn't use e-cigs. Overall, more people quit in the latest year that data was available -- the 2014 -- 15 year -- than in the 2010 -- 11 year. Today's study didn't address whether e-cigs are luring people who would otherwise be nonsmokers. But it did find that e-cigs do have a role in helping people quit. The researchers looked at several population surveys that cover the years 2001 to 2015. These surveys provided smoking-cessation rates, and the most recent survey, from 2014 to 2015, had information about e-cigarette usage. The results show that 65 percent of e-cigarette users had tried to quit smoking, versus 40 percent of people who smoked but didn't use e-cigs. About 8 percent of e-cig users succeeded in quitting for at least three months, compared to about 5 percent of non-users. Overall, the number of people who quit smoking increased by 1.1 percentage points in 2015 from 2011. This might not seem that impressive, but it still represents about 350,000 people.
Does the study address whether e-cigs help people seriously reduce, but not quit entirely, smoking normal cigarettes?
From a family member I can say that getting an e-cig reduced smoking from about a pack a day to two-three cigs a day; certainly an improvement though I have no idea where that would fall in this kind of either-or study. Probably on the "Didn't try quitting" or "Tried and failed" columns.
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" succeeded (for at least three months)"
I succeeded to quit smoking for at least 3 months without any e-cigs and that for at least 8 times.
But seriously, quitting for 3 months only is a joke, you'll need to do it for at least 20 years to succeed sending thousands of heart surgeons and nurses to the unemployment office.
8 percent is still an awfully low success rate. personally i tried to quit cigarettes several times with the patch, nicotine gum, and vaping with plain nicotine, but always went back to smoking after about a week. now it's been almost 3 years since i quit for good, and what made the difference was vaping liquid with "whole tobacco alkaloids" (WTA), meaning they add not only nicotine but also 3 other psychoactive compounds from the tobacco. no more cigarette cravings, hundreds of times less toxic than smoking. end of public service announcement.
In fact, it was shown that simply saying it was shown does not carry a lot of weight around here.
Hold my beer and watch this!
They found that smokers who used e-cigs tried to quit smoking more often and succeeded, however they forgot that corelation does not mean causcation. Intentionaly? Could be, depends on who is behind the study.
Could it be opposite? Could it be that smokers who really want to quit will try e-cigs more often ten those who don't?
Long-time smoker here, smoked for 30 years, quit over a period of a year, and for 30 more years have never once ever wanted to smoke a cigarette again.
The key is this: you never, ever "need" to smoke. In fact, just the opposite, you have to force your body to accept smoking. Just remember how sick you got at the beginning. That's how much your normal body doesn't like smoke. It's an irritant! What kind of crazy logic is it to intentionally breathe in smoke?
I sat down 30 years ago and made a list of all the pros and cons of smoking. Honestly, there are a lot of things on both sides of that list, it surprised me. But when you net it out, what remains is this: all that smoking gives you is the desire to have another cigarette.
In other words, it's a cheat. I try to not do stupid things. Cheating yourself is colossally stupid.
Go cold turkey. Forget about walking up to it, attack it head-on. It took me three attempts, each one much easier to maintain than the last.
You can do this. Your body will thank you.
"We receive as friendly that which agrees with, we resist with dislike that which opposes us" - Faraday
I had my last cigarette June 5th 2010. That's when I started "vaping" with the very primitive equipment available then.
It wasn't easy. Cigarettes create a cross addiction not only to nicotine, but to at least 4 chemicals in the smoke which are MAOI inhibitors (anti-depressants). So as a 30 year smoker I did have withdrawals, but not nearly as bad and quitting cold turkey.
I tried all the alternatives... Chantix cause major health problems.... Welbutrin made me manic.... Celexa put me in a state of mind where if not careful my behavior could be more reckless than my normal measured self. Patches and gums worked- but only if I were willing to use them to the point of nicotine overdose. Cold turkey was a no go.... roughly 10 attempts were made... impossible for me.
That being said vaping is not a vitamin. It delivers nicotine. And it's addictive. It's not a good thing.
But if you are trapped by tobacco and willing to work at it- it can be a good thing. For smokers trapped by the habit only.
Anyone else who is into vaping for "sport" or "cool factor" are just fools.
Another consultant who stuck it out.
"We are the Priests, of the Temples of Syrinx..."
It seems to me that people who are using e-cigarettes are already unhappy with some aspect of smoking already. Be it cost, health, convenience, or something else, something drove them away from traditional cigarettes to e-cigs. If they were committed enough to make that change and stick with e-cigs, they may have been more likely to have had success quitting smoking in a world that e-cigs did not exist.
So instead of a headline like "E-Cigarettes Linked to Helping People Quit Smoking", perhaps a more accurate headline would be "Committed Cigarette Quitters More Likely to Try E-Cigarettes As a Stepping Stone"
I'm sorry, but your opinion seems to be wrong.
A neighbor is a tech employee formerly of an independent vaporizer company now owned by one of the big three tobacco corps. By next year, perhaps now, all of the worldwide big tobacco corps will have completed buying out all of the competition except perhaps for one and the little guys in china who will be banned to import to the OECD. They are working on having this new and far safer for humans challenge either owned and/or regulated away to raise the bar of difficulty to the point that profitability of old tobacco is not in question, they can survive massive taxes as long as addiction is assured. Of course pharma grade OTC drug nicotine 'juice' will be priced as profitable as cigarettes so no more good deal either. This is opium war bullshit When the regulation is in capture the mob tells the cops what to do, same here, they can't let people quit the addiction and quit paying Tobacco. They have already lost the big lawsuits, they are immune from most health prosecution since they bribed the states, but what about monopoly, I guess not because big THREE.
Nonsense. No such thing has been shown. For me, the e-cig was a gateway to not really having any more interest in nicotine at all. Not just being a white knuckle quitter, but actually being able to be around someone smoking and have no interest at all.
>> 65 percent of e-cigarette users had tried to quit smoking... About 8 percent of e-cig users succeeded in quitting for at least three months
Wow that's a pretty big fail rate. Is E-Cig juice really so addictive? If so shouldn;t it be banned? I mean what about people that are now hooked on vaping that never were cig smokers?
... if it means I never have to watch a smoker flick their butts into the street ever again.
Trade 1 filthy habit for another?
First, it is none of my business what an adult does to their body willingly. Have at it.
Don't force anyone else to inhale 2nd hand smoke.
At least e-smokers don't constantly liter and think nothing about it. Saw yet another smoker driving yesterday throw the cig butt on the road. Automatic $1000 fine here.
But the smell of both smoking methods is highly offense. I completely understand why someone would smoke some pot, but I don't get the cigs or e-cigs at all.
When I first came to the US I was absolutely disgusted how many cigarette butts were littering every single intersection where cars came to a stop... it looked awful.
Nowadays you really don't see cigarette butts nearly enough. You can go to the beach and the kids can play in the sand without finding cigarette butts. It's been a real impressive turnaround. As you say, if vapers aren't littering everywhere, that's a huge improvement...
"That's the way to do it" - Punch
I smoked for about 15 years. I attempted to quit a fee times and would even make it a few months but I enjoyed the act. About 5 years ago, I committed to switching to a vaporizer. Now I barely use it. I started with a low dose of nicotine and quickly switched to 0mg. I don't even take my vaporizer on trips or to bars any more. I occasionally puff on it while working on a particularly difficult task or when stressed but it lives in my office at home.
My daughter will be born tomorrow and she'll never know her dad as a smoker. (Or her mom but that's not my story.) Vaporizer FTW!
Oh wait so you'd rather give money to Big Tobacco? LOL
If you read between the lines it talks about users of limited numbers which include people who had smoked 100 cigarettes in their lifetime. Which isn't a lot (my parents were chain smokers so 100 in a lifetime is pretty low). Also includes people who included at least 1 e-cigarette as a smoker. Fully addicted smokers generally have smoked significantly more. if you only smoke a few it's easier to quit. I haven't have time to fully analyze the data, but this feels like a pitch to lower "sin taxes" as well as get E-cigarettes allowed in countries that ban it. To say e-cigarettes are a quitting aid tool is misleading, especially in this study which seems to leave too much room for manipulation. Feels like when Intel said Rambus Ram was superior to DDR at in insane scale, only for people to discover that Intel rugged the test so the results would be in favor of Rambus but Rambus actually did worse in real world situations.
"Imagination is more important than knowledge" - Einstein
Exactly! You've swapped nicotine delivery systems. And it has shown in up tick usage among teens. So no this is not better.
in fact it was shown to be even more toxic to the smoker and for the second hand smoke.
Citation?
As a lifelong asthmatic, I take this sort of stuff pretty seriously. Secondhand smoke from cigarettes was the bane of my existence for much of my life. When it comes to e-cigs, however, I have yet to see data suggesting they are anywhere close to as dangerous as traditional cigarettes, either to the person vaping or to those around them. The only legitimate complaint I've been able to formulate so far is that the odor from some vaping liquids, flavored ones in particular, may act as an irritant to asthmatics, in much the same way that strong perfumes or potpourri can cause some of us to have breathing problems.
While it's true that various studies have found toxic substances in the vapors produced by e-cigs, the data I saw suggested that the levels present were mostly orders and orders of magnitude below those seen in traditional firsthand and secondhand smoke. Even in e-cigs operating outside of "safe" temperature bounds, the toxins (if they were detectable at all) were oftentimes nearly indistinguishable from trace quantities already present in the air. We know that burning things--whether we're talking about mesquite wood in a BBQ smoker or the liquid used in an e-cig--oftentimes produces carcinogenic vapors, but the actual risks involved are thought to be relatively low at this point, and we don't have any long-term studies disputing that notion at this point.
That said, with the market largely unregulated there are a lot of vendors selling vaping liquids with unknown contents, so we can't dismiss the notion that they may be putting dangerous substances in their products. Moreover, routinely scalding your mouth or throat by vaping has (I believe) been shown to increase your risk for cancer in those areas, in much the same way that you run the same risk if you drink scalding tea or coffee on a regular basis (more or less, by damaging your cells with heat, you're increasing the likelihood that you'll suffer from a cancer-causing transcription error during cellular reproduction).
If you have information to the contrary, I'd love to see it, since I am unabashedly biased against e-cigs and would love to have ammunition in the fight against them. I also need to be intellectually honest with myself, however, and that means being willing to admit that I don't have anything substantive against them at this point.
Smoking cigarettes looks cool. Vaping looks dorky. No one in their right mind would start with vaping, but cigarette smokers wishing to quit don't mind looking dorky to get rid of the cancer sticks.
Signed: nicotine-gum chewing, patch-wearing ex-smoker.
When they came for the communists, I said "He's next door. Take him away. Goddam commies."
too expensive for most kids, cigarettes are cheaper and easier to come by. where I live vaping would cost 2.5 times the price of cigarettes, your taxation rate may vary some.
Nicotine is not the problem, people do not get ill or die from Nicotine. The smoke is the problem, the tar droplets, the whole chemistry of low temperature burning. This is different to your beer/scotch example.
Besides, the delivery way does have influence on the addictiveness: tar-delivered Nicotin is incorporated very fast, seconds after a draw the smoker feels the ffect. With vape you have to keep it up for 10 minutes or longer until the nic-levels in the serum increase. Now there is a rule that the duration between application and feeling the effect is one of the factors deciding about the addictivness of the substance and indeed there was a study where doctors tried to create a nicotin addiction with vape in people who had never smoked before - and failed.
The missing alkaloids (MOAI) may play a role here, too.
605413? Yes, it's a prime.
Don't forget, unless they switch from ecigs to cigarettes, they aren't smoking. You'll need to figure out how many of them would have started smoking rather than vaping had ecigs not existed.
It seems to me that people who are using e-cigarettes are already unhappy with some aspect of smoking already. Be it cost, health, convenience, or something else, something drove them away from traditional cigarettes to e-cigs. If they were committed enough to make that change and stick with e-cigs, they may have been more likely to have had success quitting smoking in a world that e-cigs did not exist.
So instead of a headline like "E-Cigarettes Linked to Helping People Quit Smoking", perhaps a more accurate headline would be "Committed Cigarette Quitters More Likely to Try E-Cigarettes As a Stepping Stone"
Didn't read the article just searched it for key words, figuring is just better SPAM than most.
I use a Top-O-Matic cigarette machine made tada TOP ($50). I purchase pipe tobacco for less than $10 for 6 oz which last me close to a month. Pipe tobacco is a weak approach as it doesn't have the "strength" of a normal cigarette.
I have reduced smoking by well 1-2 packs a day to 10 roll my own. I could easily quit if I just wanted to, I just took the cheaper approach.