U.S , U.K. and Australian Studies Prove E-cigarettes Can Improve Quit Smoking

JOYMY reports, January 5, that recently, several countries such as Australia, the United States, and the United Kingdom have confirmed through data comparisons and studies that e-cigarettes can help smokers quit smoking effectively, or even permanently. Experts believe it is imperative that e-cigarettes be incorporated into smoking cessation strategies and used as an important harm reduction tool, and that it is necessary for the media and the public to reweigh the risks and potential benefits.

 The former president of the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco (SRNT) and professionals from leading universities such as the University of Dundee, the University of California and the University of Minnesota have co-authored an article arguing that the controversial nature of e-cigarettes focuses on both the risks to youth and the potential to help smokers quit smoking, and published it in the American Journal of Public Health in " The paper, "Balancing Consideration of the Risks and Benefits of E-Cigarettes," was published in the American Journal of Public Health to explore this issue.

The paper cites several trials. In a randomized controlled trial of smoking cessation in the United Kingdom, smokers assigned to the e-cigarette group had almost twice the quit smoking rate at 1 year (18%) compared to the nicotine replacement therapy group (9.9%); a trial in New Zealand found that nicotine patches on nicotine e-cigarettes were more effective than nicotine-free e-cigarette patches alone over a 6-month trial period, so nicotine e-cigarettes could improve the effectiveness of existing smoking cessation effectiveness of aids; another Cochrane review examined 26 randomized controlled trials and concluded that "nicotine-containing e-cigarettes improved smoking cessation rates compared with nicotine-free e-cigarettes, and nicotine replacement therapy."

Numerous trials have proven that e-cigarettes, are an effective means to help smokers quit smoking. The article said that the public's concerns about youth use of e-cigarettes are very legitimate, but the issue needs to be put into perspective, there is a great deal of evidence that e-cigarettes are helping smokers to quit smoking, and if the public health community pays serious attention to the cessation potential of e-cigarettes, so that smokers receive accurate information about the relative risks of e-cigarettes and smoking, the implications are much greater than simply focusing on the risks of youth use of e-cigarettes.

In addition, an Australian study on the National Drug Strategy Household Survey (NDSHS) found that Australians who used e-cigarettes to quit smoking were more successful than those who did not, and that e-cigarette users were about twice as likely to be successful as others who tried to quit if users who used e-cigarettes only once or twice were excluded. Dr. Mark Chambers, author of the University of New South Wales study, has also repeatedly affirmed the importance of incorporating e-cigarette products into smoking cessation strategies, arguing that improving the prevalence of e-cigarettes in Australia is expected to help some Australian smokers quit. Meanwhile, a study published in "The American Journal of Drug and Alcohol Abuse" concluded that there is a need to use e-cigarettes as a harm reduction tool, and by sifting through data from thousands of studies, researchers found that smokers who switched to nicotine e-cigarettes were more likely to quit smoking than those who switched otherwise.