Vaping may not help smokers kick their habit

By
HeadQuest

E-cigarette sales jumped 97 percent over the past year, according to a Wells Fargo Securities LLC research note, with sales only expected to grow. The campaign is that vaping helps traditional tobacco smokers kick their habit. Now a study by researchers at Georgia State University says that may not be the case.

The study which examined 1,284 American adult smokers from 2015 to 2016, found that U.S. adult smokers who don’t use electronic vaping devices were more than twice as likely to quit as those who do. Moreover, more than 90% of smokers who also vaped at the start of the study were still smoking a year later. More than half of these smokers were also still vaping.

The Georgia State researchers concluded that there is “no evidence” that vaping devices “helped adult smokers quit at rates higher than smokers who did not use these products.” These vaping devices “may not be the disruptive technology that increases the population quit rate” and reduces the harms of smoking, the study said.

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