Vaping is a health hazard that causes chronic cough and bronchitis. It can also cause severe lung injury that requires hospital admission to treat. But some observers claim that e-cigarettes are beneficial because they help smokers quit nicotine cigarettes. A new study reports that vaping doesn’t help smokers quit.
Fewer than 10% of vapers succeeded in quitting smoking
The Population Assessment of Tobacco and Health (PATH), a national survey of 49,000 smokers, found that just 9.9% of smokers used vaping to quit smoking successfully. Successful quitting was defined as being smoke-free for a full year.
The e-cigarette users had a significantly lower rate of success at quitting than those who used any other method. In the study, 15.2% of the former smokers used Nicotine Replacement Therapy (NRT) or a pharmaceutical aid, and 18.6% didn’t use any products.
“There’s no evidence that the use of e-cigarettes is an effective cessation aid,” said Dr. John Pierce of the Moores Cancer Center.
Former smokers took up vaping
The study also found that most e-cigarette users were either current or former cigarette smokers. Up to 22% of former smokers took up vaping after quitting cigarettes successfully. These smokers generally believed that vaping was less dangerous than smoking traditional cigarettes.
Quitting smoking
Cigarette smoking is the #1 preventable cause of death in America. If you smoke, consider quitting.
If you don’t smoke, don’t start smoking or vaping! Teenagers who vape are 3 times more likely to start smoking cigarettes than those who don’t vape.
Talk with your doctor today about ways to quit.
