Tobacco: the electronic cigarette is as good as the patch!
updated the 17 August 2015 à 11:26According to a New Zealand study, the e-cig is ‘comparable to nicotine patch’ as it does help smokers quit.
After a trial of 657 smokers wishing to quit smoking, a New Zealand study suggested that ‘the electronic cigarette is comparable to the nicotine patch’. Certainly, it is far from being a miraculous solution to quit smoking like the sellers of these e-cigarettes would wish (on the other hand the effectiveness of the nicotine patch is between 10-20%); But at least this study shows that there it is definitely not just a ‘gadget that serves no purpose’.
Will this be enough to raise the suspicions of the authorities? After all, recent studies suggest that the Vaporette e-cig does not seem to have any impact on health in terms of increasing the risk of cancer and stroke. Except the fact that it contains nicotine, which remains to be a powerful drug …
The main concerns come from the United States where disturbing data suggest that its use was multiplied by 2 among college and high school students between 2011 and 2012. 160,000 young Americans who have never tried a real cigarette before, still “smoked” the electronic cigarette.
Controversial since its arrival, the e-cigarette will probably ultimately play a role in smoking cessation. In the same New Zealand study, it helped the volunteers reduce tobacco use, and fared better than the patches when it came to ‘loyalty’ and continuous use. Thus, after the test, a third of the smokers continued to use an electronic cigarette, compared to just 8% of patch users. This is undoubtedly a powerful tool, which remains to define and regulate the practice to prevent it from being used to recruit smoking ‘consumers’ who wish to quit rather than being aimed at non-smokers.
Mathieu Rached
