E-cigs a ‘no-brainer’

The Australian Therapeutic Goods Administration’s (TGA) recent interim decision to effectively ban nicotine-containing electronic cigarettes could potentially cost millions of people more than A$6,000 a year – and it’s the poor who will be the hardest hit, according to a story by Joe Hilderbrand for news.com.au.

Tobacco Treatment Specialist Dr. Colin Mendelsohn of the University of New South Wales’ School of Public Health was said to have calculated that a smoker on 20 cigarettes a day spent $7,300 a year on cigarettes – with that amount increasing by 12.5 percent each year as a result of tobacco tax hikes.

By contrast, Mendelsohn assessed that the typical cost of vaping using nicotine electronic cigarettes would be $1,150 per year – representing an annual saving of $6,150 for every smoker who switched.

Meanwhile, studies had found that vaping was 95 percent safer than smoking.

“So vaping is at least 85 percent less expensive than smoking and 95 percent safer, Mendelsohn was quoted as saying. “You will be richer and healthier if you make the switch to vaping. To me, that’s a no brainer.”

The revelation about the cost savings potentially available to vapers comes as a new study has found that financially stressed smokers are often going without meals rather than cigarettes and that the more smokers are driven into poverty the less likely they are to quit.

There are about 2.6 million daily smokers in Australia, according to the latest Australian Bureau of Statistics figures – almost 15 percent of the adult population. And they are overwhelmingly concentrated in poorer areas.

Hildebrand’s story is at: http://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/health/health-problems/decision-could-cost-millions-of-australians-6000-a-year/news-story/aee8a80a977219665fd73315f42c5112.