The report ‘Changing behaviour: Electronic cigarettes‘ published this week, aims to raise awareness and makes a number of recommendations pertaining to how e-cigarettes should be included in smoking cessation programs.
“For smokers trying to quit, e-cigarettes are more attractive than traditional smoking cessation methods, such as nicotine replacement therapy, and at least as effective.” said lead author Dr Lynne Dawkins, an Associate Professor at London South Bank University.
The positive effect of the hand to mouth motion of vaping
In line with what Dawkins said, a number of studies have already indicated that the devices are smokers’ preferred smoking cessation tools. This is due to the fact that the hand to mouth motion required to vape, closely imitates the action of smoking, making the transition from smoking to not-smoking a smoother one for addicts.
Dr. Dawkins and co-author Dr. Hayden Mc.Robbie conclude the report by offering the following suggestions :
- “ Improve education about the relative harms of smoking, nicotine and e-cigarettes.
- Combine existing best practice, NHS Stop Smoking Services (SSS) with the most popular quitting method (e-cigarettes) to increase attractiveness of the SSS and further boost success rate. Offer e-cigarettes and technical support as part of the SSS and fund the services to support smokers to quit.
- Use policy interventions and fiscal measures to raise the cost of smoking and reduce the cost of e-cigarettes. Continue to increase taxes, smoke-free regulation and purchasing barriers for cigarettes but regulate the reduced risk product less heavily. For e-cigarettes, avoid taxation and ‘vape-free’ legislation and promote unrestricted advertising of factual information.
- Regulate to promote product development — allow e-cigarettes to further evolve and improve so they are safer, more appealing and satisfying for more smokers.
- Invest in research to continue to explore the effects of e-cigarettes on smoking cessation and to determine which factors promote a successful transition”
E-cigs satisfy all aspects of cigarette addiction
In an interview on The Psychologist, Dr. Dawkins referred once more to the fact that research keeps indicating that smokers crave both nicotine and the physical action of smoking, while NRTs available in pharmacies satisfy only the former. “We await the results of clinical trials to determine whether this promising new device can indeed improve our current arsenal of smoking cessation techniques.” she concluded.
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I’m delighted to see some research appearing that highlights why vaping is so successful for quitting by acknowledging the importance of mimicking the action of smoking and not just supplying nicotine.
I quit 40 years of a 50 a day habit earlier this year, and from my perspective retaining the action of smoking, the inhaling, exhaling and the vapour were (and remain) far, far more important than the dose of nicotine in getting me to quit fags and keeping me off them. I now vape 6mg nicotine at a rate that about emulates my cigarette consumption, and can honestly say I haven’t felt a yearning for a fag more than once of twice since I switched.
Even quitting itself was something of an accident; my girlfriend decided that she was going to give up (again!) and I started vaping just to keep her company, with no intention at all of quitting. Within a week I’d gone a day with not more than two or three fags (even those were at particularly habitual moments) without really thinking about it, so I thought I’d go the whole hog just to see how long I could last. Having quit, I have no intention at all of going back, but equally no intention of quitting vaping, which I really do enjoy. The trick to it for me was simply to experiment to find flavours I liked, junk any I didnt take to and to vape as and when I needed to – and to make sure I vaped enough to make any vague glimmer of a craving go away.
While its great that research like this is finally appearing at a greater rate, until its much more widely reported in the mainstream press I doubt attitudes are going to change much, leaving the “if it looks like a cigarette” brigade to set the agenda, unfortunately. And while most medical organisations now seem to be behind vaping as a route to harm reduction, the NHS official policy of “some people have found e-cigarettes a useful aid to quitting” is so lacklustre and hands off as to be useless, and appears to be mainly an afterthought to patches, gum and “The Programme”. Until they develop a more proactive and positive approach to vaping and a roadmap for users on how vaping can help, a lot of opportunity to capitalise on the growth in vaping as a means of quitting will be lost.