Tag: quitting

Flavors Help Smokers Quit

Image: Tobacco Reporter archive
People are more likely to quit smoking combustible cigarettes by vaping if they receive help choosing the right flavor, plus supportive messages, according to new research reported by Filter.
The journal Addiction recently published a study conducted by London South Bank University (LSBU) that involved 1,214 eligible participants who were heavy smokers and expressed interest in quitting by using vapes. The researchers recruited these participants through social media.
They then tested five remote interventions aimed at helping people switch—mostly online surveys that produced recommendations based on individual responses. The interventions were “tailored device selection advice; tailored e-liquid nicotine strength advice; tailored e-liquid flavor advice; brief information on relative harms; and text message (SMS) support.”
“Simple tailored advice on selecting a flavor along with supportive text messages could increase quit rates by 55 percent,” said Lynne Dawkins, professor of nicotine and tobacco studies at LSBU and one of the study authors.
By offering different groups of participants different interventions (including all or none of them), the study sought to determine which combination was most effective.
“In the adjusted model,” the researchers concluded, “the only significant interaction was a two-way interaction, advice on flavor combined with text message support, which increased the odds of abstinence [from cigarettes].”
August 14, 2023
Study: E-Cigs Help Pregnant Smokers Quit

Photo: seksanwangjaisuk | Adobe Stock
New research reveals that e-cigarettes are as safe to use as nicotine patches for pregnant smokers trying to quit and may be a more effective tool.
Quitting smoking is difficult. For smokers who become pregnant, not quitting smoking in pregnancy can increase the risk of outcomes including premature birth, miscarriage and the baby having a low birth weight, according to a story in The Guardian.
“Many pregnant smokers find it difficult to quit with current stop smoking medications, including nicotine patches, and continue to smoke throughout pregnancy,” said Francesca Pesola, an author of the new study who is based at Queen Mary University in London.
While e-cigarettes have been found to be more effective than nicotine patches in helping people quit, Pesola noted there has been little research into their effectiveness or safety among pregnant women despite an increase in use by expectant mothers.
Writing in the journal Nature Medicine, Pesola and colleagues describe how they randomly assigned 569 pregnant smokers to use e-cigarettes and 571 to use nicotine patches—a form of nicotine-replacement therapy that can already be prescribed during pregnancy. The participants were, on average, 15.7 weeks pregnant and smoked 10 cigarettes a day.
Only 40 percent of those given e-cigarettes and 23 percent of those given patches used their allocated product for at least four weeks. However, both uptake and duration of use during the study was higher among those given e-cigarettes.
After excluding participants who self-reported not smoking but who used nicotine products other than those allocated to them—for example, those in the group given patches who used e-cigarettes—the team found those given e-cigarettes appeared to do better at quitting smoking.
May 18, 2022
Study Claims Patches Better Than Vapes
Credit: kues1
A new study claims that those using e-cigarettes to quit smoking found them to be less helpful than more traditional smoking cessations aids such as patches and gum.
The study, published Monday in the journal BMJ, analyzed the latest 2017 to 2019 data from the Population Assessment of Tobacco and Health (PATH) Study, which follows tobacco use among Americans over time.
“This is the first time we found e-cigarettes to be less popular than FDA-approved pharmaceutical aids, such as medications or the use of patches, gum, or lozenges,” said John Pierce, the director for population sciences at the Moores Cancer Center at the University of California, San Diego, according to CNN.
A three-month randomized trial in the United Kingdom, published in 2019, found e-cigarettes, along with behavioral interventions, did help smokers quit tobacco cigarettes. In guidance published in late 2021, the UK National Institute for Health and Care Excellence decided to recommend that smokers use e-cigarettes to help them quit.
Another recent study, published in JAMA Network Open, found adult smokers with no plans to quit are more likely to stop smoking if they switch to daily vaping, according to new research led by Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center.
The Roswell Park study also used data collected from 2014 to 2019 as part of the PATH study.
February 9, 2022
Vaping is working in Southwest Florida
A few businesses in Southwest Florida, U.S., are allowing vaping in the workplace, according to a story in the Naples Daily News.
For instance, Safety Harbour Insurance, which serves Lee and Collier counties, is said to allow its employees to ‘e-puff’ away at work.
“We absolutely love it,” said manager Candace Nichols, who has been using e-cigarettes for nearly a year after smoking tobacco cigarettes for 13 years. “It cuts back on the extra break time, so we are able to be more productive within the business.”
Nichols, among others, said e-cigarettes helped them quit regular tobacco smoking.
And for that reason, other companies, including Lee Memorial Health System, are considering changing their policies to allow vaping.
At present, Lee Memorial’s policy against using tobacco products in any of its buildings includes e-cigarettes, but that ban could change.
“The policy was written several years ago when e-cigarettes were much less common,” Lee Memorial spokeswoman Mary Briggs, wrote in an email.
“We recognize that many people are using them to help them stop smoking, so we are going to review the policy this summer to see if it needs any changes.”
April 15, 2013