Doctor’s orders: Offer vapes to smokers as quitting tool

A major new report in America’s most prestigious medical journal has declared that vapes should be offered to smokers trying to kick the habit for good.

The landmark study was compiled by a panel of 24 top experts from the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco. It concludes that vaping is FAR less dangerous than smoking and even outperforms traditional quit-smoking aids like patches, gum and lozenges that have lined pharmacy shelves for decades.

Describing the report as a welcome rebuttal of misinformation being circulated about alternative nicotine products, Smoke Free Sweden leader Dr Delon Human said:

“This report should be essential reading for doctors, regulators and public health authorities around the world. It will tell them – if they should need reminding – that smokers deserve accurate information about the alternatives that could save their lives.

“Cigarettes kill because tobacco is burned and toxic smoke is inhaled. Nicotine may create dependence, but it is combustion that causes the overwhelming burden of smoking-related disease. Treating all nicotine products as equally harmful obscures that crucial distinction.”

The report, published in the American Medical Association’s journal JAMA, says there is robust evidence that vapes help adults stop smoking. It cites the latest Cochrane review, which found high-certainty evidence that nicotine e-cigarettes produce higher quit rates than NRTs.

It also states that vaping exposes users to far fewer carcinogens and other toxicants than smoking, with levels of some toxicants up to 90% lower.

Dr Human, a former secretary-general of the World Medical Association, said the findings reinforce the case study provided by Sweden’s successful progress to official smoke-free status. The Swedes have achieved the EU’s lowest smoking rates and incidence of tobacco-related disease by ensuring that safer nicotine alternatives are accessible, acceptable and affordable to adult smokers.

“Sweden has shown what becomes possible when public policy focuses on the relative risks of different products and helps smokers move away from combustion,” he said.

“Cigarettes remain one of the world’s leading causes of preventable death. Giving smokers credible routes away from them is an ethical and public health imperative.”