New health insurance guidelines in the Netherlands that took effect January 1 allow smokers to receive reimbursement for up to three quit attempts per year, a move public health advocates say could significantly boost long-term cessation rates. Data show smokers enrolled in support programs are six times more likely to remain smoke-free for a year, with success rates rising to nearly 30% in the most intensive programs. Despite decades of decline, smoking still affects about 18% of the population—rising to 30% among those with lower education levels—and experts note it takes an average of six attempts to quit for good. While stop-smoking courses cost around €400 per attempt, campaigners argue the expense is outweighed by potential healthcare savings, with studies estimating billions in avoided medical costs and tens of thousands of cancer cases prevented if smoking rates fall sharply over the next decade.
Tag: cessation
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Türkiye Working to Cut Smoking Rate
Türkiye’s Health Minister Kemal Memişoğlu said that smoking remains one of the country’s most serious public health challenges, with nearly one in three people using tobacco. Speaking in Ankara, he called for urgent action to reduce smoking rates and said Türkiye should no longer rank among Europe’s heaviest-smoking nations.
Memişoğlu said Türkiye is among the world’s top three countries for lung cancer cases, and stressed that most smokers want to quit and outlined expanded government efforts, including free smoking cessation services, mobile clinics in public spaces, and counseling and medication offered through family health and healthy life centers.
The minister also highlighted broader investments in preventive healthcare, including the expansion of family health centers and healthy life centers focused on early diagnosis, screenings, and lifestyle guidance.
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Effected Oral Bacteria Could be Harnessed for Cessation: Study
A study by Dr. Nishant Mehta, associate professor at PGIMER (Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research), Chandigarh, India, found that prolonged use of smokeless tobacco alters the oral microbiome, promoting the growth of bacteria capable of breaking down nicotine. The research suggests these “nicotinophilic” microbes adapt to repeated nicotine exposure by using it as an energy source. The findings indicate that these microbial changes could potentially be harnessed to support future tobacco cessation strategies.
Presented at the 29th IAPHD National Conference (NATCON 2025) in Mangaluru, the study earned the Best Paper Award. Researchers analyzed saliva samples from smokeless tobacco users using advanced molecular techniques and confirmed that certain oral bacteria can actively metabolize nicotine. While further research is needed, experts say the study offers a new biological perspective on nicotine dependence and oral health.
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Study: Health Risks of Chewing Tobacco Need More Attention
A new global study published by Nature Communications said that chewing tobacco should be receiving more attention for the significant health risks it causes, linking it to multiple forms of cancer and stroke (evidence for heart disease remains limited). Researchers found sufficient evidence connecting chewing tobacco use to six major health outcomes—including esophageal, lip and oral cavity, laryngeal, nasopharyngeal, and other pharynx cancers, as well as stroke. These findings reinforce previous evidence that chewing tobacco is a carcinogen and highlight its growing health impact, particularly in South Asia, where over 80% of the world’s 273 million users reside.
The study said its systematic review and meta-analysis, which analyzed over five decades of research, is the most comprehensive evaluation to date focused specifically on chewing tobacco, distinct from other smokeless tobacco products. The study’s authors called for urgent policy action to integrate chewing tobacco into global and national tobacco control programs, improve cessation support, and expand high-quality research.
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Connecticut Votes to Nearly Triple Budget in Tobacco Fight
Connecticut’s Public Health Committee approved legislation to put $32 million into the Tobacco and Health Trust Fund for smoking cessation, a $20 million increase over the proposed budget from Gov. Ned Lamont. In 2023, the state invested $12 million into the program but it was suspended in 2024.
The money to fund this program comes from the Tobacco Master Settlement agreement. Chris Collibee, budget spokesman for the Lamont administration, said the state will receive $109.6 million from the settlement in 2025, and $108.1 million in 2026. He also said each year $200,000 of the settlement money goes to the Attorney General’s office and the Department of Revenue Services to cover the costs of tobacco enforcement, with the rest going to the General Fund.
The Connecticut Department of Public Health found that in 2023, 12.7% of high school students used a form of tobacco, down from 18.8% in 2022.
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Study: Vaping Does Not Help Smokers Quit
E-cigarettes do not increase smoking cessation and are associated with reduced tobacco abstinence, says researchers at the Herbert Wertheim School of Public Health and Human Longevity Science and Moores Cancer Center at the University of California San Diego. The study, among smokers in the U.S. and published March 5 in JAMA, “refutes the common misperception among tobacco users and e-cigarette proponents” that e-cigarettes can help people quit smoking.
“Most smokers think vaping will help you quit smoking,” John P. Pierce, Ph.D., a distinguished professor at the school and study’s co-author said. “However, this belief is not supported by science to date. While some researchers have suggested that smokers who switch to daily vaping will be more successful in quitting smoking, we studied quitting success among both daily and non-daily vapers and came up with a quite definitive answer.”
The study analyzed data from 6,000 U.S. smokers from the Population Assessment of Tobacco and Health Study. There were 943 smokers who also vaped and by matching and comparing these to similar smokers who didn’t vape, they found smoking cessation was 4.1% lower among smokers who vaped daily and 5.3% lower among smokers who vaped occasionally.
Researchers said that while e-cigarettes don’t have the same health consequences as smoking, they are not harmless.
“The adverse health effects of cigarette smoking become obvious after people have smoked for 20 years,” said Pierce. “While vapes generally don’t contain the same harmful chemicals as cigarette smoke, they have other risks, and we just don’t yet know what the health consequences of vaping over 20 to 30 years will be.”
This study was supported by the Tobacco-Related Disease Research Program of the University of California Office of the President.
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Paper Highlights Adaptive Cessation Methods
Adaptive smoking cessation approaches can help individuals who struggle with traditional methods, according to a new study led by Gal Cohen, head of scientific affairs at Rose Research Center in North Carolina, USA, and conducted in collaboration with researchers from the Center of Excellence for the acceleration of Harm Reduction (CoEHAR) at the University of Catania in Italy.
Nearly 40 years after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the first smoking-cessation products, the effectiveness of most methods remains low, with smokers requiring an average of 30 attempts for each successful cessation outcome.
In their paper “Personalized and Adaptive Interventions for Smoking Cessation: Emerging Trends and Determinants of Efficacy,” Cohen and his team analyze the limitations and prospects of the most commonly used smoking cessation methods, and conclude that adaptive smoking cessation approaches can represent a better solution for individuals who struggle with traditional methods.
The study highlights the complexities of cigarette addiction and innovations in cessation products. By focusing on individual determinants of efficacy—such as sensory preferences and nicotine tolerability—the article offers fresh insights into smoking cessation and advocates for personalized, adaptive treatment plans. It also highlights how emerging approaches, like cytisine and combustion-free nicotine delivery systems, provide new avenues to reduce smoking-related morbidity.
“Quitting smoking is hard; you are trying to extinguish the complex interplay of nicotine delivery, sensorial experience and use ritual that cigarettes provide to people who smoke” said Cohen in a statement. “However, the emerging array of pharmaceutical cessation therapies and nicotine substitution products offer the opportunity to personalize the off-ramp from smoking.”
According to CoEHAR founder Riccardo Polosa, nicotine replacement therapies provide neither the bolus nicotine delivery nor the sensory stimuli and behavioral rituals associated with smoking. Conversely, electronic nicotine delivery systems represent the most prevalent nicotine substitution products and were used every day or some days by 11-17 million U.S. adults.
In a survey of adult vapers in the U.S., U.K. and Canada, 73 percent of respondents said they used e-cigarettes because they wanted quit smoking.
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WHO Releases Guideline for Cessation
Image: Tobacco Reporter archive The World Health Organization has released a comprehensive set of tobacco cessation interventions, including behavioral support delivered by healthcare providers, digital cessation interventions and pharmacological treatments, in its first guideline on tobacco cessation.
The guideline focuses on helping tobacco users who want to quit all forms of tobacco. The recommendations are relevant for all adults seeking to quit various tobacco products, including cigarettes, water pipes, smokeless tobacco products, cigars, roll-your-own tobacco and heated-tobacco products.
“This guideline marks a crucial milestone in our global battle against these dangerous products,” said Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO director-general. “It empowers countries with the essential tools to effectively support individuals in quitting tobacco and alleviate the global burden of tobacco-related diseases.”
“The immense struggle that people face when trying to quit smoking cannot be overstated,” said Ruediger Krech, director of health promotion at the WHO. “We need to deeply appreciate the strength it takes and the suffering endured by individuals and their loved ones to overcome this addiction. These guidelines are designed to help communities and governments provide the best possible support and assistance for those on this challenging journey.”
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Disappointing Quit Rates in Philippine Program
Image: Teppi Only one-fifth of individuals enrolled in the Philippine government’s cessation program in 2023 were able to fully quit smoking or vaping, reports the Inquirer, citing a doctor from the Lung Center of the Philippines (LCP).
Of the 144 participants in 2023, only 29 successfully quit, according to Jessica Catalan-Legarda, a doctor in the LCP’s pulmonology department,
Those who did not continue with the program voluntarily dropped out, to which the LCP responded with contact tracing and follow-up calls.
“These voluntary quitters usually go back to smoking and vaping, and based on studies, it takes around seven to eight attempts to successfully quit smoking or vaping,” Catalan-Legarda was quoted as saying.
Successful quitters tended to be between 22 and 44 years of age and have a comparatively high educational background, according to Catalan-Legarda.
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Vapers Now More Likely to Quit Cigarettes
Photo: Pcess609 Smokers who switch to e-cigarettes are now more likely to stop smoking regular cigarettes, according to a new paper published by Oxford University Press in Nicotine & Tobacco Research. In the past, smokers who began vaping mostly continued smoking.
Electronic nicotine delivery systems first emerged on the U.S. market in 2007. The first e-cigarettes resembled conventional cigarettes (in appearance) and used fixed low-voltage batteries. Beginning in 2016, manufacturers introduced e-liquids containing nicotine salt formulations. These new e-cigarettes became widely available. These nicotine salts are lower in pH than freebase formulations, which allow manufacturers to increase nicotine concentration while avoiding harshness and bitterness.
Past population-level research provided conflicting findings on whether vaping helps people who smoke combustible cigarettes to quit smoking. Some research suggests improved cigarette quitting-related outcomes with e-cigarette use, while other research suggests the opposite. Inconsistent findings may be due to differences in the samples and measures considered, differences in the analytic approaches of researchers used, the rapidly changing product environment, or policy contexts.
While our study doesn’t give the answers as to why vaping is associated with cigarette quitting in the population today when it wasn’t associated with quitting years ago, design changes leading to e-cigarettes that deliver nicotine more effectively should be investigated.
The researchers here examined differences in real-world trends in population-level cigarette discontinuation rates from 2013 to 2021, comparing U.S. adults who smoked combustible cigarettes and used e-cigarettes with U.S. adults who smoked combustible cigarettes and did not use e-cigarettes.
Using data from among adults (ages 21+) in the Population Assessment of Tobacco and Health (PATH) Study, a national longitudinal study of tobacco use from people from all over the United States, the researchers found that between 2013 and 2016, rates of discontinuing cigarette smoking among adults in the U.S. population were statistically indistinguishable between those who used e-cigarettes and those who did not. Cigarette discontinuation rates were 15.5 percent for those who used e-cigarettes and 15.6 percent for those who did not.
But the quit rates changed in subsequent years; the researchers here found that between 2018 and 2021 only 20 percent of smokers who did not use e-cigarettes stopped smoking combustible cigarettes, but some 30.9 percent of smokers who used e-cigarettes stopped smoking combustible cigarettes.
The paper notes that the full study period spanned a time in the United States when the e-cigarette marketplace was expanding; salt-based nicotine formulations gained market share in 2016 and vaping products became available with increased nicotine yields over time. This was also a period in which state and federal governments restricted tobacco in various ways, including increasing the tobacco-purchase age to 21 and restricting flavored e-cigarettes.
“Our findings here suggest that the times have changed when it comes to vaping and smoking cessation for adults in the U.S.,” said study first author, Karin Kasza, an assistant professor of oncology in the Department of Health Behavior at Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center in Buffalo, New York, in a statement.
“While our study doesn’t give the answers as to why vaping is associated with cigarette quitting in the population today when it wasn’t associated with quitting years ago, design changes leading to e-cigarettes that deliver nicotine more effectively should be investigated. This work underscores the importance of using the most recent data to inform public health decisions.”