Dirty habits die hard. Slightly less dirty habits don’t go any easier.
A new, worldwide review of smoking cessation from 2014 to 2023 found the best way to quit cigarettes is to swap in nicotine-filled e-cigarettes. Progress?
Evidence shows that nicotine-laden e-cigarettes were better at kicking butts than nicotine replacement methods such as patches, gums, lozenges and behavioral support — and more effective than e-cigarettes with no nicotine.
But is it an improvement to jump from one nicotine-based product to another? The CDC says not really.
While electronic smoking devices (commonly known as e-cigarettes, e-cigs or vapes) generally contain “fewer harmful chemicals than the deadly mix of 7,000 chemicals in smoke from cigarettes” — which virtually all medical professionals agree leads to cancers, metabolic disorders, cognitive decline and other serious health consequences — they’re still not considered safe.
Scientists continue to collect data on how e-cigarettes affect human health in the long term.
What we already know is that despite their many similarities to old-fashioned cigs, e-cigs and vapes are uniquely harmful in their own ways: Their aerosols contain “cancer-causing chemicals and tiny particles that can be inhaled deep into lungs,” per the CDC.
Secondhand inhalation of the aerosols, also called the vapor, is dangerous, like secondhand smoke.
Dr. Stanton Glantz, director of the Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education at UC San Francisco, recently told the American Nonsmokers’ Rights Foundation that “if you are around somebody who is using e-cigarettes, you are breathing an aerosol of exhaled nicotine, ultra-fine particles, volatile organic compounds and other toxins.”
There have also been reports to the FDA of seizures related to vape use.
Like regular cigarettes, “the use of any tobacco product, including e-cigarettes, is not safe during pregnancy,” the CDC warns. The nicotine in regular cigarettes and most of the electronic varieties is dangerous to pregnant women and unborn fetuses, potentially damaging brains and lungs during key stages of development.
Vaping and regular cigarettes are also associated with mental health issues like depression. When surveyed about their e-cigarette use, the most common response from middle and high school students was: “I am feeling anxious, stressed or depressed,” the CDC said.
Worse still, nicotine e-cigs are just as addictive as the analog version, and manufacturers have faced furious criticism for targeting kids with a range of flavors and bright colors.
That said, given the data, smoking regular cigarettes appears to be slightly worse for the human body than e-cigs. And any intervention that could potentially get someone to ditch their pack a day is theoretically a step in the right direction, right?
The new review also highlighted some gaps in the existing research that might one day lead to less harmful alternatives.
The study authors said there aren’t any “high-quality systematic reviews” comparing nicotine e-cigarettes with cytisine (a smoking cessation medication), bupropion (a depression medication that’s shown promise as a smoking cessation drug) or nicotine pouches.
They also found there was not enough data on “serious adverse events” related to e-cigarette use.
Still, if the goal is to stop people from smoking cigarettes, these little contraptions — some of which have started house fires and led to “small explosions” — might be useful.
Dr. Angela Difeng Wu, senior researcher and lecturer at the Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences at the University of Oxford, said she hopes the scientific community can “lay to rest some claims that evidence is ‘mixed’ regarding the impacts of nicotine e-cigarettes on smoking abstinence.”
“The evidence is clear and consistent across all of the meta-analyses we consulted: e-cigarettes are effective at helping people stop smoking,” she said.
Other studies, however, have shown that youth who vape are more likely to take up smoking cigarettes and face an increased risk of drug use, according to the CDC. Others still suggest that smokers are likely to take up vaping alongside smoking, known as “dual use,” which has worse outcomes than using either product alone.
So if you successfully made the switch from regular cigs to e-cigs, don’t be too surprised if your “A” for effort turns into an “F” for f—ed somewhere down the line.
