Have you tried E-quitting?

We all know the dangers and negative health effects associated with smoking cigarettes.  Increased risk for lung cancer, heart attack, and high blood pressure are just a few of the many negative physical impacts that smoking has on the human body.  But what if I told you that smoking could help you stop smoking?  We’ve all seen the students on campus and the people outside of bars exhaling the big clouds of vapor from the new electronic cigarettes, or E-cigarettes.  These work by electrically heating up a flavored liquid that tastes like tobacco, but lacks the harmful smoke (2).  A recent study, published at the end of October of this year, cited that E-cigarettes can be an effective method of quitting smoking.  The study shows that between two groups of cigarettes smokers, the group that changed to E-cigarettes had decreased cravings and even showed a 60% decrease in cigarette use over the eight month period (1).  This could be fantastic news as many smokers are aware of the risk associated with smoking, but find themselves unable to break the addiction and quit for good.  Could this be the tool that society uses to totally eradicate tobacco smoke?

Unfortunately, the answer is probably not.

Another study, published just a month later than the first, November 2014, shows that certain brands of E-cigarettes contain ten times the level of carcinogens as regular cigarettes (2).  Several brands showed consistent increased levels of formaldehyde and acetaldehyde.  These E-cigarettes have been considered safer since they became popular and have even gotten high levels of non-smokers to try them (2).

So unfortunately, people are moving away from the harmful effects of smoking to the potentially more harmful effects of E-cigarettes.  Proving once again that there is no easy solution to get people to stop smoking.

Adriaens K, Van Gucht D, Declerck P, Baeyens F. 2014. Effectiveness of the Electronic Cigarette: An Eight-Week Flemish Study with Six-Month Follow-up on Smoking Reduction, Craving and Experienced Benefits and Complaints. Int J Environ Res Public Health [Internet]. 11(11):11220-48. Available from: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25358095 

Kanae Bekki, Shigehisa Uchiyama, Kazushi Ohta, Yohei Inaba, Hideki Nakagome, and Naoki Kunugita. 2014. Carbonyl Compounds Generated from Electronic Cigarettes. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health [Internet].11(11), 11192-11200. Available from: http://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/11/11/11192/htm