E-cigarettes Don’t Actually Help Smokers Quit

A new study reveals that electronic cigarettes, widely touted as a means to help smokers quit traditional cigarettes, have the opposite effect.

Researchers at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF; USA) conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis of real-world observational and clinical studies that examined the association between e-cigarette use and cigarette smoking cessation among adult cigarette smokers, irrespective of their motivation for using e-cigarettes and their interest in quitting. The researchers also controlled for many variables, including demographics, past attempts to quit, and level of nicotine dependence. The primary endpoint was cigarette smoking cessation.

In all, the researchers found 38 studies assessing the association between e-cigarette use and cigarette cessation among adult smokers. Of these, 20 studies that had control groups of smokers not using e-cigarettes were included in the meta-analysis, which concluded that the odds of quitting smoking were 28% lower in smokers who used e-cigarettes compared to those who did not. According to the researchers, inclusion of e-cigarettes in smoke-free laws and voluntary smoke-free policies could help decrease their use as a cigarette substitute. The study was published online on January 14, 2016, in the Lancet Respiratory Medicine.

“The irony is that quitting smoking is one of the main reasons both adults and kids use e-cigarettes, but the overall effect is less, not more, quitting,” said coauthor Prof. Stanton Glantz, PhD, MD, director of the UCSF Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education. “While there is no question that a puff on an e-cigarette is less dangerous than a puff on a conventional cigarette, the most dangerous thing about e-cigarettes is that they keep people smoking conventional cigarettes.”

Electronic cigarettes consist of a cartridge containing a liquid with a nicotine concentration of 11 mg/mL and a battery powered heating element that evaporates the liquid, simulating the effect of smoking by producing an inhaled vapor that is less toxic than that of regular cigarettes. They were first developed by Herbert Gilbert in 1963, but the dawn of the modern e-cigarette is attributed to Chinese pharmacist Hon Lik, who introduced them as a smoking cessation device in 2004.

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