Why one heavy smoker made the switch

For almost 20 years, Johannesburg resident Justin Adan smoked more than a pack of cigarettes a day. A few months ago he started using an e-cigarette. Now he smokes a cigarette now and again, “like when I forget my vaper in the office and I’m outside with the smokers, or when I need to recharge it or run out of juice. But I no longer have a burning desire to smoke.

“I realise that the safety is unknown at this time. But my personal experience is that it’s a lot better than actually smoking.”

An avid gymgoer, Adan says his physical improvement was almost immediate. “I feel better and am able to train a lot harder now.”

Another upside to vaping, he says, is the cost; he spends R900 a month on e-cigarettes whereas cigarettes cost him R1 500 a month.

But the main reason he switched was because of his wife. “She hates the smell of cigarettes.”

Tackling nicotine addiction

In 2014 the Cochrane Library published a scientific review of the evidence for and against the use of e-cigarettes either to help a smoker quit cigarettes or reduce tobacco smoking:

Almost half the people who try to quit “cold turkey” don’t manage to stop smoking for even a week.

Less than 5% of people who try to quit without support are tobacco-free for up to a year.

After one year the average quit rate for an antidepressant medi- cation, bupropion, marketed as Zyban, was between 18% and 30%.

After one year the average quit rate for nicotine replacement therapy, which includes patches and gum, was 15%.

One of the reasons the quit rates remain low is that “none adequately addresses the sensory and behavioural aspects of smoking that smokers miss when they stop smoking”.

Just under 10% of people who use e-cigarettes that contain nicotine quit smoking tobacco after a year. They are more likely to reduce the amount of tobacco they smoke by at least half — a greater reduction than people who use the nicotine replacement patch.