Vaping can help some people quit smoking, but what about nicotine?

According to a new study, e-cigarettes have helped more people quit smoking than traditional nicotine replacement therapies, but vows are not a miracle cure for nicotine addiction. Most smokers who tried to smoke were still smoking cigarettes at the end of the test, and most vapers who made managed to quit continued to vaper a year later.

The new study, published Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine, reports that 18% of smokers who opted for the electronic cigarette gave up their cigarette after one year. That's more than 9.9% of people who quit using conventional means such as gum, patches, or inhalers. The findings add weight to claims that e-cigarettes may help some people quit smoking, but we still know a lot about the long-term effects of e-cigarettes on health or how to prevent millions of people from smoking. teenagers to use them.

Electronic cigarette companies are presenting themselves as a less risky alternative for people seeking to quit smoking. But according to the CDC, being less risky than cigarettes is a low criterion: "Burnt cigarettes are extremely dangerous and kill half of the smokers in the long run." And the jury wondered if electronic cigarettes could help people stop smoking, Vox reports: few rigorous trials have compared vaping to other smoking cessation aids, such as the patch or gum.

"This type of study, a systematic and well-done randomized controlled trial, was what was sorely lacking in the debate that had been going on for a decade about the potential benefits and harms of e-cigarettes," said Gideon St. Helen, researcher in tobacco at the university. from California, San Francisco who was not involved in the research, said in an email to The edge. Important caveats persist: for example, study participants knew they used electronic cigarettes or, for example, patches – and this knowledge could have skewed the results if they thought one strategy was better than the other. In addition, the study does not evaluate the most popular types of electronic cigarettes, such as Juul. However, Saint Helena says, "The results are really important and can change the game."

Researchers led by Peter Hajek, professor of clinical psychology at the Wolfson Institute of Preventive Medicine, discovered 866 people who wanted to quit smoking and did not care. The first month, they all had weekly individual interviews with a clinician. Half of them also received their favorite nicotine replacement treatments and the other half, a starter kit for a refillable vape, including a bottle of Tobacco Royale flavored vape juice. Participants could exchange the device or the liquid if they wished.

The researchers met regularly with the study participants to badess, among other things, their sleep, whether they had nausea, if their throat or mouth were painful and the amount of phlegm they were coughing. The big question was whether participants could avoid smoking one year on the other. The researchers verified by measuring the carbon monoxide exhaled by study participants – a marker of smoking. At the end of one year, 18% of electronic cigarette users had quit smoking, as did 10% of the nicotine replacement group. E-cigarette users were more successful than other groups, and their nicotine replacement and withdrawal symptoms were less severe.

This is the problem: 80% of the vaping group of people who started burning cigarettes still used e-cigarettes after one year. This is a huge fraction compared to the 9% who still used traditional nicotine replacement therapies at that time. Thus, although vaping somewhat facilitated stopping cigarettes, it did not help much in stopping nicotine altogether. In addition, the study did not use the types of pod-based electronic cigarettes such as Juuls that dominate the market. The science is not yet known, but given the convenience, the high dose of nicotine and the nicotine-based formulation, it is possible that the pod-based vapes are even harder to stop than the reusable type. used in the study.

The long-term effects of vaping on health will be particularly important in determining whether the switch to e-cigarettes marks the beginning of a long-term habit. We know for example that harmful chemicals can form in e-liquids when they are on a shelf, for example, and that the pee of vapers shows signs of exposure to carcinogens and irritants. In addition, science on the effects of nicotine on health himself is still cloudy: some studies suggest that it could be risky for people with heart problems. And this creates addiction – which can make people feel controlled by their cravings or unpleasant withdrawal symptoms.

St. Helena says the question is now? Yes, the study adds weight to what vapers have been saying for a while: that electronic cigarettes could be useful tools to help a fraction of smokers quit. But it is impossible to examine the results in a vacuum: there are 3.6 million High school and college students are using e-cigarettes in what the US Surgeon General has said is an epidemic. "This risk remains, but will it be prioritized even though this well-done study shows that e-cigarettes can help adult smokers quit smoking? The answer probably lies with the regulators and the electronic cigarette industry: if they can prevent young people from marveling in record numbers, then maybe.