Vaping doesn’t help people quit smoking: California study reveals its true impact on consumers

UCSD researchers found that smokers who use e-cigarettes are less likely to quit compared to those who don’t.

According to a recent study by researchers at the Herbert Wertheim School of Public Health and Human Longevity Science and the Moores Cancer Center at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) , e-cigarette use not only fails to help smokers quit, but may actually be associated with decreased quit rates. The findings, published in the academic journal JAMA , contradict the widely held belief that vaping is an effective smoking cessation tool.

The analysis, which included data from more than 6,000 American smokers, found that those who vape daily are 4.1% less likely to quit compared to those who do not use e-cigarettes.

For occasional vape users, the quit rate was 5.3% lower. According to John Pierce , a professor at the Herbert Wertheim School of Public Health and co-author of the study, “The idea that vaping helps people quit smoking is not supported by science to date.”

The study also highlighted that about two-thirds of smokers believe that e-cigarettes can help them quit smoking, a perception that researchers say has been fueled by tobacco industry advertising. However, the results of this research suggest that this belief is wrong and that vaping could instead perpetuate nicotine addiction.

The research team used data from the Population Assessment of Tobacco and Health Study , a nationally representative sample of smokers in the United States. Of the more than 6,000 participants, 943 were current smokers who also used e-cigarettes. To ensure the accuracy of the results, the researchers matched vape users with non-smokers, taking into account factors such as recent quit attempts, the presence of a smoke-free home, and the frequency of tobacco use.

Karen Messer , a professor of biostatistics at the Herbert Wertheim School of Public Health and senior author of the study, explained that this approach allowed for comparing consumers with similar characteristics. “If a smoker is already very interested in quitting, has a smoke-free home, and does not smoke daily, they are much more likely to be successful in quitting, regardless of whether they vape or not,” Messer said.

This detailed analysis allowed researchers to reach a definitive conclusion about the relationship between vaping and smoking cessation.

Vaping doesn’t help people quit smoking. California study reveals its true impact on consumers

Vaping risks: a long-term unknown

Although e-cigarettes do not contain many of the harmful chemicals found in tobacco smoke, researchers warned that they are not harmless. According to John Pierce , “We know that e-cigarettes are not safe. There are glycerin, heavy metals and other substances that users are inhaling. We don’t know what the health consequences will be after 20 or 30 years of use.”

Pierce also noted that the adverse effects of traditional smoking typically become apparent after two decades of use, making it difficult to assess the long-term risks of vaping given that it is a relatively new practice. However, the researchers stressed that while e-cigarettes may be less harmful than conventional cigarettes, they are not without risks.

Implications for public health and regulation of vaping

The findings of this study have important implications for public health policy, especially regarding the regulation and marketing of e-cigarettes. According to the researchers, the misperception that vaping helps people quit smoking has been perpetuated for years due to studies that did not adequately control for confounding factors, such as individual characteristics of smokers.

“It is essential that tobacco control policies are based on rigorous scientific evidence,” said Karen Messer . “Our study shows that misleading associations between vaping and tobacco cessation frequently occur if confounding characteristics are not accounted for,” she added.

Additionally, researchers expressed concern about the impact of vaping on teens, who often view e-cigarettes as a gateway to nicotine addiction. Natalie Quach , a biostatistics PhD student and lead author of the study, stressed that there is still much to learn about the health effects of vaping.

“What we do know is that the idea that vaping helps people quit smoking is not true. It is more likely to keep people addicted to nicotine,” he said.