(LIBERTY UNYIELDING) – Vaping (using electronic cigarettes) helps smokers quit smoking. This matters because unlike cigarette smoke, the vapor produced by e-cigarettes does not cause cancer or kill lots of people. Research shows that “widespread switching from smoking to vaping would prevent between 1.6 million and 6.6 million premature deaths by 2100.”
A December 28 study of smokers who initially had no intention to quit provides clear evidence that e-cigarettes (which emit vapor, rather than smoke) help people give up smoking. The study’s authors found that people who vaped every day were eight times as likely to quit smoking as those who did not use e-cigarettes. They reported their findings this week in JAMA Open Network.
“These findings are paradigm-shifting, because the data suggest that vaping may actually help people who are not actively trying to quit smoking,” noted study co-author Andrew Hyland, who heads the Department of Health Behavior at Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center. “Most other studies focus exclusively on people who are actively trying to quit smoking, but this study suggests that we may be missing effects of e-cigarettes by not considering this group of smokers with limited intention to stop smoking—a group that is often at the highest risk for poor health outcomes from cigarette smoking.”
