As electronic cigarettes become a more popular means of quitting conventional cigarettes, studies pointing to their efficacy are accumulating. In an online survey of nearly 3,600 subjects who were recruited from either e-cigarette-related web sites or smoking cessation sites that have nothing to do with e-cigarettes, researchers from the Institute of Social and Preventive Medicine at the University of Geneva found that a large majority of the responders who had quit reported that e-cigarettes helped them get off cigarettes.
And, in an entry for his blog tobaccoanalysis.com, ACSH advisor Dr. Michael Siegel, professor in the Department of Community Health Sciences at the Boston University School of Public Health, discusses the study results, which were published in the journal Addiction. Among e-cigarette users who used the devices to quit smoking, four out of five said they fear they would return to smoking cigarettes if the electronic nicotine delivery devices were banned.
Despite the study s positive conclusions regarding the use of e-cigarettes as effective smoking cessation devices, some prominent public health organizations continue to rail against the alleged dangers of allowing these products on the market. But people who rely on science, not simply feelings, are frustrated by such fervent opposition, says ACSH s Dr. Gilbert Ross. Those who want to ban e-cigarettes and refuse to investigate the potential of harm reduction are adhering to a discredited dogma, which is frustrating to scientists such as Dr. Siegel.
A ban on e-cigarettes is hypocritical and illogical, adds ACSH s Dr. Josh Bloom, especially since Congress has allowed companies to legally sell harmful or useless (and untested) products, such as dietary supplements. But all of a sudden, regulators are worried about the safety of e-cigarettes? How about considering the known and serious risk of real cigarettes in the equation? Any minor safety concerns about e-cigarettes are dwarfed by the real risk of smoking. Why people who are supposedly acting in the interest of public health can t grasp this simple concept is a mystery to me.
Dr. Siegel sums up the issue very nicely:
