
Daily Vaping
A brand new study published in the closing days of December in the Journal of the American
Medical Association’s JAMA Network Open indicates that adult smokers with no intention of
quitting turn out to be more likely to kick traditional cigarettes if they try vaping every day.
“There are almost 40 million cigarette smokers in the United
States, according to Andrew Hyland, Ph.D., Chair of Health Behavior at Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center (RPCCC)
in Buffalo, NY,” wgrz.com reported. “About 15% of those are
considered to be the most highly addicted. They're the focus of
the study that shows daily vaping dramatically ups the quit rate
among that group.
Hyland, who is the scientific lead on the nationwide Population Assessment of Tobacco and Health study, noted, "What we found when we followed these people over the course of a year, those people that took up vaping daily were eight times more likely to quit smoking a year later compared to those people who didn't take up vaping or only vaped on some days."
This group — smokers who have no intention to quit — has
been “overlooked in the literature. It really suggests that for some
people, daily vaping may be a gateway out of cigarette smoking.
It may give them hope that they can go a day without cigarette
smoking with some of that nicotine from the vaping products
replacing the cigarettes," Hyland suggested. "Having said that,
there are still toxins in e-cigarettes, toxins in vaping products.
They tend to be fewer in number and lower in concentration. It's
not a blanket thing that vaping is good or vaping is bad."
Intense Debate
Since the introduction of electronic cigarettes to the United
States in 2006, “intense debate has surrounded the marketing,
regulation and use of these nicotine-delivery products,” the
institution explained on its web site. The Roswell Park study
used data collected from 2014 to 2019 as part of the Population
Assessment of Tobacco and Health (PATH) Study, a long-term
look at tobacco use and how it affects the health of youths and
adults in the United States.
The PATH Study is a collaboration between the U.S. Food and
Drug Administration Center for Tobacco Products (CTP) and
the National Institutes of Health National Institute on Drug
Abuse (NIDA).
“When the researchers focused their analysis on a select group of
1,600 smokers who initially had no plans to quit and were not using e-cigarettes when the study began, they found that those who
subsequently vaped daily experienced eightfold-higher odds of
quitting traditional cigarettes compared to those who didn’t use
e-cigarettes at all,” the release said.
“These findings are paradigm-shifting because the data suggest
that vaping may actually help people who are not actively trying to
quit smoking,” said Hyland. “Most other studies focus exclusively on people who are actively trying to quit smoking. This study suggests that we may be missing effects of e-cigarettes by not considering this group of smokers with limited intention to stop smoking
— a group that is often at the highest risk for poor health outcomes
from cigarette smoking.”
Overall, RPCCC explained, only about 6% of all smokers included
in the study quit smoking combustible cigarettes completely. But the
rates of quitting were significantly higher among those who took
up daily e-cigarette use — 28% of smokers quit when they started
vaping daily. “The association between vaping and cigarette-quitting
held up even after adjusting for underlying characteristics such as
educational background, income, gender, ethnicity and the number
of cigarettes smoked per day at the beginning of the study.”
‘Vaping Can Help People’
The idea that vaping can help people stock smoking cigarettes is
accepted by many.
“While clinical trials show strong evidence that vaping can help
people quit smoking, findings from real-world population studies have been mixed,” said Karin Kasza, PhD, a research scientist
in the Department of Health Behavior at Roswell Park and first
author of the study. “Our study identified a positive association
between daily vaping and cigarette quitting specifically among
the segment of smokers who were not planning to quit, consistent
with data from clinical trials.”
“We found evidence that the use of e-cigarettes could have a positive impact on this very hard-to-reach group of recalcitrant smokers,” Hyland concluded.
Typical is the testimony of one long-time smoker, whose account is posted, verbatim, on the American Vaping Association’s web site:
“Been smoking for 35 years, I am 50 now. Lately, I’ve been coughing and hacking so much… My daughter was learning about the
dangers of cigarettes in school (Sixth Grade) and she asked me if I
would please try to quit. I kept saying I will, soon. I will. Well, I’ve
been praying on not knowing how to quit smoking. I wanted to,
but I enjoyed it and I was addicted. Recently, it just so happened
that some other parents at soccer practice told me about Vaping
(that they both used to smoke cigarettes) and offered me a vape
puff. So I did. I haven’t smoked cigarettes for 10 days. Its really unbelievable. I am really happy and amazed. If I can do this, anyone
can. Thank you, I believe Vaping and my Daughter saved my life.”