Vaping and smoking focus of seminar
THE overall public health goal remains to encourage people to quit smoking, when they are both smoking and vaping, Janet Hoek said yesterday.
University of Otago Research Fellow Dr MeiLing Blank and Prof Hoek, the latter of the university marketing department, yesterday gave a public health seminar at the Otago preventive and social medicine department.
The talks, attended by about 30 people, were titled ‘‘Vaping among smokers and nonsmokers: Qualitative research and findings from a smart ecigarette study’’.
‘‘We need to make it clear to people there has to be a full cessation [of smoking],’’ Prof Hoek said in an interview.
Dr Blank discussed a study of ‘‘smokingtovaping transition attempts’’ using a ‘‘smart’’ Electronic Nicotine Delivery System (ENDS), which allowed recording of vaping behaviours in real time, combined with selfreported updates on cigarette smoking.
Dr Blank is also part of Aspire 2025, a multidepartment Otago research theme supporting the goal of smokefree New Zealand by 2025.
Prof Hoek commented on another Otago study, part of which focused on 20 dual users, and also reflected on wider international discussions about people who both smoked and vaped, she said.
Many people had remained dual users but a public health challenge was to convince smokers that the ultimate goal was not simply reducing harm by smoking less, but to quit completely.
Even regular smoking of a few cigarettes had damaging effects on human health, Prof Hoek said.
Dr Blank said vaping remained a controversial technology, despite strong support for its harmreducing benefits from the Royal College of Physicians in Britain and the New Zealand Ministry of Health.
Dr Blank also reflected on an eightweek feasibility study of a smart vaping recording system among 11 dual users: smokers who were using vaping in a bid to quit smoking.