Boston University Study Suggests E-Cigs Can Help You Quit

Posted on February 16th, 2011 by Jack Stone

The Boston University School of Public Health released a study about electronic cigarettes, concluding that “Electronic cigarettes show tremendous promise in the fight against tobacco-related morbidity and mortality.” The study was published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine (online this month and should be in the next print version).

Electronic Cigarettes more effective than the patch or gum

Even though electronic cigarettes aren’t designed to be used to quit smoking, the study found that 31 percent of respondents reported having quit smoking within 6 months of purchasing an electronic cigarette. This is about twice as effective as traditional nicotine replacement products like the patch or nicotine gum, which only have a 12-18% average 6-month abstinence rate.

In addition, the study found that almost 67% of respondents reported having reduced the number of cigarettes they smoked after using electronic cigarettes.

According Michael Siegel, on of the study’s authors and professor of community health sciences at Boston, “This study suggests that electronic cigarettes are helping thousands of ex-smokers remain off cigarettes.”

Siegel says that “while it is well-recognized that nicotine plays a role in smoking addiction, little attention has been given to the behavioral aspects of the addiction. These devices simulate the smoking experience, which appears to make them effective as a smoking cessation tool.”

States still fighting to ban e-cigs

A number of objective studies have suggested that electronic cigarettes are quite a bit better than tobacco cigarettes. Still, a number of states and municipalities have sought bans on the devices in an attempt to wipe anything even remotely associated with cigarettes off the face of the Earth. According to Siegel, “banning this product would invariably result in many ex-smokers returning to cigarette smoking,” and “would substantially harm the public’s health.”

A few more interesting quotes from the study:

On electronic cigarettes compared to tobacco cigarettes:

• “Theoretically, we would expect vaping to be less harmful than smoking as it delivers nicotine without the thousands of known and unknown toxicants in tobacco smoke.”
• “A product that mimics the act of smoking, in addition to delivering nicotine, can address both pharmacologic and behavioral components of cigarette addiction.”

On the safety of electronic cigarettes

• “As [about] 5300 of the estimated 10,000 – 100,000 chemicals in cigarette smoke have ever been identified, we already have more comprehensive knowledge of the chemical constituents of electronic cigarettes than tobacco ones.”
• “[Tobacco-specific nitrosamines] (TSNAs) have been detected in two [previous] studies at trace levels of 8.2 ng/g. This compares with a similar level of 8.0 ng in a nicotine patch, and it is orders of magnitude lower than TSNA levels in regular cigarettes…a 500-fold to 1400-fold reduction in concentration.”
• “The presence of [diethylene glycol] (DEG) in one of the 18 cartridges studied by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is worrisome, yet none of the other 15 studies found any DEG.”
• “Other than TSNAs and DEG, few, if any, chemicals at levels detected in electronic cigarettes raise serious health concerns.”
• “Although the existing research does not warrant a conclusion that electronic cigarettes are safe in absolute terms…a preponderance of the available evidence shows them to be much safer than tobacco cigarettes and comparable in toxicity to conventional nicotine replacement products.”

If you’re interested, you can check out the original study here [hsph.harvard.edu]