Does Vaping Help Smokers Quit?

On a segment of “The Doctors” the question was raised does vaping help smokers quit? What’s interesting to note, the only Dr on the panel was Dr Michael Siegel. The others were anti vaping activist including Matt Myers the founder of Tobacco free kids.

Dr Siegel rightfully brought up the Random Controlled Study published in the New England Journal of Medicine that shows that it clearly does. Matt Myers Founder of Tobacco Free Kids countered with Population based studies say otherwise. Where does he get this? My guess is long time “discredited” anti smoking/vaping activist who has a long history of playing fast and loose with the numbers.

Stanton Glantz wrote in his blog.

“As we have pointed out in detail, it is the effectiveness standard that the FDA Center for Tobacco Products (CTP) should use when assessing whether authorizing the sale of e-cigarettes as consumer products in “appropriate for the protection of public health,” the standard in the law.

The fact that e-cigarettes are efficacious is the clinical trials suggests that they might be appropriate as cessation aids when used under medical supervision as a cessation treatment if the risks/benefit profile is favorable. “

The problem is, that if you look at his own study (that he cites) The numbers don’t back up his commentary. Here is a clip from his own study.

“

Results. We identified 64 papers (55 observational studies and 9 randomized clinical trials [RCTs]). In observational studies of all adult smokers (odds ratio [OR] = 0.947; 95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.772, 1.160) and smokers motivated to quit smoking (OR = 0.851; 95% CI = 0.684, 1.057), e-cigarette consumer product use was not associated with quitting. Daily e-cigarette use was associated with more quitting (OR = 1.529; 95% CI = 1.158, 2.019) and less-than-daily use was associated with less quitting (OR = 0.514; 95% CI = 0.402, 0.665). The RCTs that compared quitting among smokers who were provided e-cigarettes to smokers with conventional therapy found e-cigarette use was associated with more quitting (relative risk = 1.555; 95% CI = 1.173, 2.061).

“Conclusions. As consumer products, in observational studies, e-cigarettes were not associated with increased smoking cessation in the adult population. In RCTs, provision of free e-cigarettes as a therapeutic intervention was associated with increased smoking cessation.”

Then you look at the numbers and they don’t back his commentary. If ecigarettes are used daily the quit rate was a 53% increase in the chance of quitting. ” Daily e-cigarette use was associated with more quitting (OR = 1.529; 95% CI = 1.158, 2.019)” It also showed that people who don’t use it daily were less likely to quit. “and less-than-daily use was associated with less quitting (OR = 0.514; 95% CI = 0.402, 0.665)”

The rest of the numbers in his study included 1 (null) meaning no statistical significance one way or the other. So basically what his study showed was if you don’t use it, it doesn’t work. Question for Matt and Stan, do any of the big Pharma products work if you don’t use them?

Dual use is another red herring they throw out. Many of the 3 million ex smokers that Dr Siegel mentioned were dual users, myself included. It took years of experimentation with different devices and flavors before I could quit. My story here. And even dual use is harm reduction. Every cigarette not smoked is harm reduction. 15 past presidents of the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco (SRNT) agree with Dr Siegel and debunk many of the myths here.

The lead author did an extensive interview with Brent Stafford debunking many of those lies.

Update, a recent study backs up everything I stated in this blogpost.

In this cohort study of adult daily cigarette smokers with no plans to ever quit smoking, those who took up daily e-cigarette use experienced 8-fold greater odds of discontinuation versus those who did not use e-cigarettes. https://t.co/Senn6IYNgv