E-cigarettes may raise tobacco use, study finds
ELECTRONIC cigarettes do not help smokers quit – and may actually increase tobacco use, according to a major study.
Smokers who take up vaping while also smoking ordinary cigarettes are less likely to give up than those who do not, it found.
The report comes just weeks after Public Health England (PHE) called for NHS trusts to sell e-cigarettes in hospital shops to help those trying to quit.
PHE claims vaping is “95 percent” safe, and helps thousands kick their tobacco habit.
But scientists behind the latest research warned that government endorsement of e-cigarettes could “worsen the tobacco epidemic”.
Their study of 12000 people found that, on average, British smokers get through 14 cigarettes a day if they do not also use e-cigarettes. But those who combine the two habits, consume an average of more than 15 a day.
Writing in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, researchers warned: “These results suggest e-cigarettes are associated with inhibiting smoking cessation rather than assisting it.”
Professor Stanton Glantz, from the University of California, who led the study, said: “This calls into question recent suggestions from Public Health England that hospitals begin selling e-cigarettes.
“I only hope that health authorities in England abandon their irresponsible and dangerous policy of promoting e-cigarettes, especially in hospitals.”
Around three million people in the UK use e-cigarettes. Although they contain nicotine – the addictive element of tobacco cigarettes – they have none of the other toxic ingredients.
The PHE has disputed Glantz’s findings.
Spokesman Martin Dockrell said in England, e-cigarettes had helped at least 20000 people to quit each year. – Mail On Sunday