The 2021 Cochrane review looking into the use of e-cigarettes for smoking cessation includes 61 studies conducted across 14 countries and consisting of a total of 16,759 adult participants. The compiled data has indicated that e-cigarettes containing nicotine were more effective in helping people quit smoking than other alternatives, such as nicotine gum or patches.
Led by Jamie Hartmann-Boyce, a director at the University of Oxford’s Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine, the review reinforces arguments by countless anti-smoking and tobacco harm reduction experts who have long endorsed the products as smoking cessation tools.
Benefits are being largely overshadowed by coverage on the potential risks
Meanwhile, an article published in the American Journal of Public Health highlights that the potential of smoking cessation via e-cigarettes, is being largely overshadowed by media coverage on the potential risks that vaping represents for teens.
Kenneth Warner, dean emeritus and the Avedis Donabedian Distinguished University Professor Emeritus at the University of Michigan’s School of Public Health, and 14 other past presidents of the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco co-authored an article that highlights how the potential benefits of vaping are being ignored.
“Because evidence indicates that e-cigarette use can increase the odds of quitting smoking, many scientists, including this essay’s authors, encourage the health community, media, and policymakers to more carefully weigh vaping’s potential to reduce adult smoking-attributable mortality,” reads the article.