Image Credit: SmokeTastic.com
Many people throughout the US still believe that vaping is as harmful as smoking traditional cigarettes. This is mainly due to the media and the information released by the FDA. We are going to take a few minutes to look to see if vaping is really that bad and try to find the proof behind the statements.
On the 30th January, The New England Journal of Medicine released a yearlong study looking at how effective e-cigarettes were in comparison to conventional nicotine replacement therapies (NRT) and products. The results were not surprising for people who have already switched to e-cigarettes, but still very critical. 886 randomly selected smokers who wished to quit were divided into 2 groups, one group given an e-cigarette starter kit with 18mg of e-liquid, and the other group was offered a variety of Pharmaceutical NRT treatments.
The results showed that just 9% of the group using traditional NRT treatments were able to quit, in comparison to 18% who managed to quit with vaping or e-cigarette products. That means that vaping is twice as effective as traditional NRT products.
So with this evidence, why are more people not using e-cigarettes to quit?
The big worry with many smokers, is that vaping is just as bad as traditional smoking, so what’s the point. This is mainly due to media and governments stance on vaping.
If you were to search for vaping news within any search engine, the amount of negative news you see is astounding. If it’s not news about more and more kid’s vaping, it’s a new report where an e-cigarette blew up and seriously injured a user.
The government in the US are very wary about e-cigarettes becoming popular too. They have a signed contract with all the major tobacco companies that split the profits they make with them, and hence the decrease in sales of cigarettes means less money for the individual states. This agreement is known as the Master Settlement Agreement. That said, as the popularity of vaping increases, despite the lack of support from them, they are now trying to include e-cigarettes within the agreement, so expect their attitude to change soon.
The Change in Direction
Things are starting to change; in December 2018 the Guardian reported that Public Health England maintains that vaping is a huge 95% safer than traditional smoking. This has been picked up by their government and presented to the house, where they are now following this advice and trying to also convince smokers that vaping is a better alternative.
In the US, however, it is a different story , unfortunately. The FDA is focusing mainly on “The Real Cost” campaign, which is focused on trying to stop kids from vaping. This is a clever way to deflect the issue and yet still provide a negative stance to vaping. This keeps the government and big tobacco companies happy.
The Different Types of E-Cigarettes
As vaping has doubled in popularity each year for the last 5 years there are many manufacturers releasing different models for different types of vapers. It has become a bit of a minefield in finding the right e-cigarette to suit your needs. Luckily there are sites to help, Smoketastic has a great section on helping the different users choose between these type, whilst also providing a wealth of information and reviews.
Back to the original study where vaping is twice as effective as smoking, we asked Nicholas King from Smoketastic to comment:
“Although vaping is twice as effective as any other NRT product, we believe if the public were better educated on the different types of e-cigarette and e-liquids, then the success rate would be even higher. We here at Smoketastic.com provide that gap in knowledge to help more smokers quit and choose the perfect product”.
That brings in an important point, if the FDA and governments concentrated on the positives of e-cigarettes and vaping, and released better educational information concerning quitting smoking with vaping, the country would be in a healthier state. But as the individual States are set to lose millions from the Master Settlement Agreement, and the Pharmaceutical companies (who sponsor most studies) profits are dwindling away with their NRT solutions, and less unhealthy smokers, it may be a long wait.