What science says about electronic cigarette

Below are some studies that show the beneficial effects of electronic cigarettes. Some of these studies are robust enough to have a start of scientific consensus on e-cigarettes. I list mainly the studies that show the positive effects of the electronic cigarette, because the negative studies are very doubtful by their methodology. You can contact me to propose me scientific studies on the electronic cigarette. They need to have a sufficiently large sample of people (in thousands or tens of thousands of people, a long duration and a clear methodology relevant to the vaping).

The report of Public Health England (2015)

This is undoubtedly the study that is cited systematically by the vaping community. Since the positive studies on the electronic cigarette are often accused of being at the boot of the electronic cigarette manufacturers (we see that these dudes do not know at all the vaping sector which is governed mainly by the independents). The UK government has funded a systematic evaluation of all e-cigarette studies. The report is over 100 pages long and deserves to be read in full, but here are the main messages:

  • Smokers who have tried other methods of quitting without success may be encouraged to try smoking cessation and smoking services should help smokers who quit smoking by offering them a smoking cessation program. behavioral support.
  • Encouraging smokers who can not or will not quit to switch to e-cigarettes could help reduce illness, death and inequities in smoking.
  • There is no evidence that e-cigarettes minimize the long-term decline of smoking among adults and youth and may even contribute to it. Despite some experimentation on the electronic cigarette among non-smokers, it attracts very few people who have never smoked for regular use.
  • Recent studies support the Cochrane Review’s findings that e-cigarettes can help people quit smoking and reduce their cigarette consumption. There is also evidence that e-cigarettes can encourage quitting or reducing cigarette consumption, even among those who do not intend to quit or who refuse other support. More research is required in this area.
  • When used as intended, e-cigarettes pose no risk of nicotine poisoning to users, but liquids must be in child-resistant packaging. The accuracy of nicotine labeling does not present any major problems.
  • Over the past year, the inaccurate perception that e-cigarettes are as harmful as cigarettes is changing, contrary to the current expert estimate that e-cigarette use is about 95% less dangerous than to smoke.
  • Although protecting children who do not smoke and ensuring that products placed on the market are as safe and effective as possible is clearly an important goal, the new regulations currently planned should also maximize the public health opportunities of e-cigarettes. .
    Vigilance and ongoing research in this area is needed.

 

Author’s Note: If you are not yet convinced by such reassuring conclusions, then you are really unrecoverable, dishonest or totally stupid.

Cochrane’s meta-analysis (2016)

Although the vaping community cites the UK government report, I also prefer to quote Cochrane’s meta-analysis of 2016. Cochrane is a reputable organization in the medical world. Often, these studies inspire public health policies by the different health ministries of different countries (except for e-cigarettes, of course). Cochrane himself acknowledges that his sample is small (about 600 people). But this meta-analysis of 2016 is an update of the 2014 meta-analysis and Cochrane’s conclusions have not changed at all.

Thus the authors consider that:

The combined results of two studies, involving 662 people, show that the use of a nicotine-containing electronic cigarette increases the chances of quitting in the long term compared to using a nicotine-free electronic cigarette. We were unable to determine if the e-cigarette was more effective than a nicotine patch in helping people quit smoking due to the small number of participants in the study. Additional studies are needed to evaluate this effect.

The other studies are of inferior quality, but they support these results. None of the studies found an increased health risk for smokers who used e-cigarettes in the short and medium term (for two years or less) compared to those who did not use e-cigarettes.

Author’s note: Although the Public Health England study is very positive, Cochrane’s meta-analysis is no less positive. If you are asked for studies showing that e-cigarettes have a positive effect on cessation, I would recommend these two.

The BMJ (British Medical Journal) study on e-cigarettes and smoking cessation (2017)

Not joke, because it’s only one study (contrary to previous meta-analyzes). But his sample is monstrous. More than 160,000 people including 22,000 were smokers. The data was spread over 12 months from several opinion polls on smoking and smokers in the United States.

And the conclusion of the authors is without appeal in favor of the electronic cigarette :

The substantial increase in the use of electronic cigarettes among adult American smokers was associated with a statistically significant increase in the smoking cessation rate at the population level. These findings need to be carefully weighed in the development of regulatory policies for e-cigarettes and in the planning of tobacco control interventions.

Author’s note : This is a very robust study, with a sufficiently large sample and the decline of smoking is there thanks to the vape. It can be taken from all angles, but the decline is directly caused by the vape.

Study on the decline of smoking among young people and the increase of the electronic cigarette (2018)

This study, published in Tobacco Control, destroys totally the myth of the so-called rise in smoking among young people because of the vape. The study has looked at surveys from several sources. It mainly targeted high school and undergraduate students. The paper has noticed a significant decrease in smoking among these youths as their use of e-cigarettes has increased.

Thus, the authors’ conclusions is that:

The inverse relationship between vaping and smoking was robust in different datasets for youth and young adults and for current and more established smoking. Although testing of e-cigarettes may result in a causal increase in smoking among some youths, the overall effect at the population level appears to be negligible given the reduction in the number of smokers during the period of increased smoking. .

Author’s note: This study is really interesting for more than one reason. Because on the one hand, the paper does not deny that the vape can lead to smoking. But she immediately adds that it is valid at the individual level. And yes, there may be some people, in a group of thousands of vapers, who may be tempted by the cigarette. But at the level of the population and if we look at the long term, then the vape not only lowers smoking, but it causes an acceleration of this decline. Because if you have to ban e-cigs because some people have started to smoke, then it’s like you’re not going to use seat belts in cars because some people are dead precisely because of these seat belts. Yes, seatbelt can sometimes cause accidents, but it also saves much more lives.

Study which shows that the electronic cigarette is 2 times more effective to quit smoking compared to nicotine substitutes of pharmacological companies like patch or nicotine gum (2019)

This study was published in the New England Journal of Medicine, covering 886 smokers. The researchers compared the effectiveness of all nicotine substitutes compared to the electronic cigarette. The smoking cessation rate among e-cigarette users was 18%, compared to 9.9% among those who had used nicotine replacement pharmaceuticals.

The cause-and-effect relationship is very clear. Among the important features of the study, one has the use of modern electronic cigarette and let the participants choose themselves their nicotine levels after a first bottle with 18 mg of nicotine.

Author’s Note: It is a flamboyant proof that the electronic cigarette is more effective than any other nicotine product on the market. Since the publication of the study, many scientists corrupted by pharmacological companies have tried to denigrate it without much success.