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Just five or so years ago, it’s entirely possible that you had never heard of electronic cigarettes. Yet as more and more people turn to e-cigs as a healthier alternative to smoking traditional cigarettes, their popularity has soared to huge heights in a relatively short space of time.
However, because they remain a comparatively new product, for many, e-cigs remain an unknown quantity. For this reason, scientists and research groups have conducted a huge number of studies into these revolutionary products in recent years.
Consequently, our collective level of understanding around electronic cigarettes is starting to catch up with their popularity. So with this thought in mind, we’ve searched high and low to bring you five important lessons from some of the biggest e-cigarette studies conducted to date.
- Electronic cigarettes could help you to quit smoking
At the time of writing, electronic cigarettes cannot be marketed as an aid to help quit smoking. Nonetheless, there have been numerous scientific studies that suggest they can be used as an effective tool to help people stop smoking traditional cigarettes.
One such report conducted a systematic review of six studies that in total included 1,242 participants. It concluded that 18% of participants found that electronic cigarettes helped them to stop smoking. In addition, the report found that vaping was also effective for reducing the daily cigarette consumption of many smokers.
Click here to read the research in full.
- Switching from traditional cigarettes to e-cigs has substantial health benefits
The nicotine found in traditional cigarettes doesn’t kill – it’s the toxic cocktail of chemicals that is created when tobacco burns. For this reason, the lack of tobacco in e-cigs has led many people to conclude that electronic cigarettes possess a multitude of health benefits.
A study published in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health surveyed over 19,000 users worldwide in a bid to investigate the health benefits of e-cigs. The study found that the health benefits of electronic cigarettes were substantial, especially for those who used them to substitute traditional cigarettes completely.
Click here to read the research in full.
- E-cigs do not provide a gateway into smoking for children
It has been widely reported that the availability of electronic cigarettes is turning them into a gateway for further tobacco use among youths. However, there have been several research studies to suggest that this is not the case.
A report by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) published in The Guardian states that, in the UK, only 0.14% of non-smokers use electronic cigarettes. On the other hand, the ONS reveals that 11.8% of smokers and 4.8% of ex-smokers do use e-cigs. For this reason, the report concludes that e-cigs are used almost exclusively by smokers and ex-smokers, and not people who have never smoked before.
These statistics also support the findings of a YouGov survey commissioned by Action on Smoking and Health (ASH). This report also concluded that concern about children becoming gateway users of electronic cigarettes seemed unfounded.
Click here to read the research in full.
- Vaping could be up to 95% safer than smoking
Similarly, there have been several stories in the press suggesting that some e-cigs could discharge more cancer-causing chemicals than traditional cigarettes. However, Dr Farsalinos, a renowned cardiologist and leading e-cigarette and vaping researcher, has produced a study that suggests such headlines are extremely misleading.
In his latest study, Dr Faralinos explains that the level of harmful aldehydes he found in e-cig vapour was between 30 and 250 times lower than tobacco cigarette smoke. Thus, the evidence of the study suggests that e-cigarettes are at least 95% safer than smoking.
Click here to read the research in full.
- New e-cig users are not more likely to overdose on nicotine
It is possible to overdose on nicotine. For this reason, many people believe that inexperienced vapers are more likely to poison themselves using electronic cigarettes. However, a study published in Scientific Reports rules this out as a possibility.
Most new e-cig users are used to smoking traditional cigarettes. As a result, they are used to taking short, hard draws to inhale the amount of smoke they desire. In contrast, when using an electronic cigarette, you need to take slow and steady draws to inhale a similar volume of vapour.
Therefore the main conclusion of the study was that inexperienced vapers were actually less likely to nicotine overdose.
Click here to read the research in full.
To make the switch from traditional cigarettes to e-cigs as simple as possible, our electronic starter kits include everything you need to start vaping right away. However, if you’re still concerned about using e-cigs, take a look at our guide: Examining the Truth About Electronic Cigarette Safety