Two new research papers published by King’s College London’s Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience have suggested that e-cigarette users looking to give up smoking ought to consider using vaping devices on a daily basis to increase their chances of kicking the habit.
Despite strong evidence that devices such as multiCIG and multiVAPE are up to 95% less harmful than cigarettes, given they contain no tobacco and are free from the 4,000 toxic chemicals given off by traditional tobacco products, doubts remain about their effectiveness as smoking cessation aids due to a lack of research.
Vaping has grown exponentially across many parts of the world since e-cigarettes became widely available over the past five years and it is only natural that, as a trend with potentially enormous public health benefits, medical researchers and, indeed, legislators have shown a keen interest in the phenomena.
Yet the research has been unable to keep up with the pace of vaping’s growth and, almost inevitably, controversy has ensued. What is clear, however, is that the vast majority of smokers recognise the inherent dangers of the habit and, quite rightly, want to quit.
Over the past 25 years, smoking cessation aids such as nicotine patches and gums have been a popular route for smokers to take in their attempts to stop smoking but in the last couple of years their sales have been eclipsed by those of vaping devices. Many smokers enjoy the way vaping is able to replicate many of the sensations associated with smoking and have turned to e-cigarettes in their droves.
While nobody is claiming vaping is any kind of public health panacea, the two King’s College London studies provide much-needed evidence that vaping can be helpful for those smokers who are trying to quit.
Researchers interviewed more than 1,500 smokers in December 2012 and then again one year later. Their first study was published in the journal Addiction and reported that 65% of those using e-cigarettes daily made an attempt to stop smoking during that 12 month period, compared with 44% of smokers who weren’t also vapers. The research also demonstrated that 14% of the vapers surveyed had managed to reduce their tobacco consumption by a minimum of 50%.
The second paper, published in Nicotine and Tobacco Research, showed that smokers attempting to quit made more progress when they vaped using a refillable tank model. Just 25% of the 587 vapers studied had tank models which they used daily, but of them, 28% had kicked tobacco to the kerb during the year, compared with 13% of smokers not using e-cigarettes. The numbers who stopped while using cigalikes, or merely using tank models occasionally, were broadly equivalent to the numbers of those who did not vape in any way.
Prof Ann McNeill of King’s College London’s Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience said of the two studies, “If you are using an e-cigarette, use it more frequently and stop smoking cigarettes as fast as you can. If cigalikes don’t work, try something else.”
The studies’ lead author Dr Leonie Brose said, “We already know that using an e-cigarette in an attempt to quit smoking increases the chances of success compared to quitting without any support. Regular e-cigarette use was linked to reduced numbers of lethal cigarettes smoked and increased attempts to quit smoking in the following year.”
multiCIG are well known to support further research into the effects of vaping and are confident, given the regular feedback we receive from our customers, that our products deliver a range of benefits to users. As ever, we will continue to improve our offering and continue to offer consumers choices when they seek to make positive lifestyle decisions.
