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A new study has found that many people who vape would turn back to cigarettes if e-cigarettes were banned. The study which was conducted at the US Duke University and asked current users of e-cigarettes what they would do if they couldn't get their e-cig anymore.
WHY ARE VAPERS CONCERNED ABOUT A VAPING BAN?
The research started because the FDA (the USA's Food, Drug and Alcohol regulators) have started looking into e-cigarettes and maybe cracking down on them, or even banning e-cigarettes completely. (1) The study, though small with only 240 people in it, did highlight the problem with banning e-cigarettes as it would push people back into smoking.
The researchers asked a few different questions and found that the loss of nicotine would be the biggest factor in sending people back to smoking, with almost 50% saying if e-cigarettes had no nicotine then they would go back to cigarettes (2). This makes sense, after all e-cigarettes are meant to be an alternative to smoking, giving you the nicotine you need without the 4000 chemicals that cigarettes make.
ARE E-CIGARETTES HELPING SMOKERS TO QUIT?
E-cigarettes have been shown to be the most effective nicotine replacement beating out patches, gum and every other nicotine product that you can think of (3). Not only do e-cigarettes give you the nicotine you need but they make it feel like you are smoking a cigarette. This helps not only with the chemical addiction but the psychological addiction as well. After all many smokers have been buying cigarettes for decades and breaking that habit takes more than just the nicotine.
If these numbers are accurate and the FDA did decide to ban nicotine from e-cigarettes that means in the US over 5 million out of the 10.8 million e-cigarette users would go back to cigarettes.
WHAT ARE THE OTHER POTENTIAL EFFECTS OF A BAN ON FLAVOURED VAPES?
That means those 5 million e-cigarette users would not only be taking in the 4000 chemicals in cigarettes again but the 50 known carcinogens as well (4). They would also be losing out on the monetary advantage of e-cigarettes as e-cigarettes are normally 80% cheaper than cigarettes.
As an example here at SMOKO if a smoker was smoking a pack a day they would normally be using 1 refill a day. A refill is normally £2, while a pack of cigarettes is at least £10 a box. Over a week an e-cig user will save £56 and over a year that is a saving of £2,920!
If the FDA did decide to ban nicotine all that money goes back into the pocket of the tobacco industry rather than with the population, which any way you look at it doesn’t seem like a good idea.
IS VAPING WITHOUT NICOTINE A PROBLEM?
Without the nicotine many smokers and e-cig users need there wouldn't be much point to using an e-cigarette. Here at SMOKO we do offer a 0% e-cigarette but we only suggest that people use that after they have worked their way down the nicotine strengths, not go cold turkey like banning nicotine would do.
0% is designed to be for those who have worked themselves away from nicotine gradually and are looking for something that satisfies the psychological urge. It can still be useful but for smokers who want to make the switch to e-cigarettes we would always suggest starting with nicotine.
Another finding the study showed was how few people would go back to cigarettes if there were no flavours other than tobacco. Only 17% of people said that if flavours got banned they would move back to cigarettes. What this seems to mean is that for many e-cigarette users the flavours are nice but the tobacco flavours are the main draw of e-cigarettes, not the wide variety of flavours.
Flavours can be useful after all, it can be the final move away from cigarettes when people move to a cherry or absinthe flavour, but they are not vital. The vast majority (99%) of people in the UK at least are using the e-cigarette to try to quit smoking (5). Moving to a tobacco flavour is helpful for them as it makes the experience feel more real.
You might be asking then if almost all the people who are using e-cigarettes are smokers trying to quit, it has been shown to be the most effective way to get of cigarettes and is much cheaper than cigarettes, why would the FDA in America be thinking of banning e-cigarettes?
That's because in the USA they are having a real issue with those underage using the e-cig which has produced a lot of scare mongering and calls to ban the e-cig completely. The good news is that this issue isn’t worldwide for example in the UK only 0.2% of under 18’s started on e-cigarettes without already being smokers and are using it regularly.
We have talked about before the issues the US is having, but it basically comes to down to insufficient laws and information on e-cigarettes. One of the major e-cigarette companies over in the USA has come under fire for if not helping at least allowing this to happening, and something does have to be done but even talking of banning e-cigarettes shouldn’t be the answer. E-cigarettes have already helped millions of people in UK get off cigarettes for good, and just banning them will hurt more people than it will help.
BANNING E-CIGARETTES WILL DRIVE PEOPLE BACK TO SMOKING - CONCLUSION
So if you are a smoker and want to make the switch to e-cigarettes then why not try SMOKO today? Not only will you save thousands of pounds every year, but use something that gives you the taste and the feel of a cigarette without the carcinogens! And as a added bonus there is no second hand smoke so those around you don’t have to breathe in those carcinogens either.
In fact, the largest evidence review to-date, conducted by Cochrane, found high-certainty evidence that E-Cigarettes are more effective for quitting smoking than traditional forms of nicotine replacement therapy, like nicotine patches and nicotine gum! (6)
And even better you can try a SMOKO E-Cigarette for FREE when you buy a box of E-Cigarette refills and see if you can go smoke free!
*(when you purchase 1 pack of E-Cigarette refills. One per customer.)
REFERENCES
(2) New E-Cigarette Laws Could Drive Some Users to Smoke More Cigarettes
(4) Harmful Chemicals in Tobacco Products
(5) Evidence review of e-cigarettes and heated tobacco products 2018: executive summary
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Written by Mike Cameron
Mike Cameron is a former smoker of 15 years (2 packs a day) until he successfully quit using a cigalike. Mike is the Co-Founder and CEO of SMOKO E-Cigarettes and over the last 10 years, SMOKO has prevented 600M+ cigarettes from being smoked, helped their customers save £320M+ of their hard-earned money from going up in smoke and helped 10,000’s of adult smokers in 25+ countries to live smoke-free.
