How e-cigarettes may be making it harder to quit vaping

An anti-vaping group has cited international studies that showed individuals who indulge in vaping find it harder to stop smoking and urged the country’s youth to resist the propaganda on vapes being promoted as gateway devices to quit cigarettes.

This is an important finding since manufacturers and supporters have been alleged to position vaping as an alternative and an effective smoking cessation tool, said ‘Mothers Against Vaping’, a united front fighting against the promotion of new-age tobacco devices.

The group cited studies from the University of California in San Diego, the US, the University of Auckland in New Zealand and the University of Sydney in Australia.

It emphasised that the findings serve as an important lesson for the country’s youth to resist the alleged propaganda of e-cigarette manufacturers who promote vapes, heated tobacco products and other new-age gateway devices as a means to quit smoking.

The study by the University of California found that many people turn to e-cigarettes as a strategy to quit smoking, but this approach is ineffective. Instead, e-cigarette use is associated with reduced tobacco abstinence, it said in a statement.

The researchers examined quitting success among both daily and non-daily vapers and concluded that vaping definitely does not help smokers quit. In fact, it makes it harder to quit, the statement said.

Researchers from the Auckland and Sydney universities conducted a study, the findings of which challenge the claims of e-cigarette companies in associating vaping with a reduction in smoking, the group said.

The study found that vaping is not displacing smoking among young people and may have even slowed New Zealand’s progress in preventing adolescent smoking, the statement said.

The research also shows that the prevalence of daily vaping in New Zealand increased from 1.1 per cent in 2015 to 10 per cent in 2023.

The University of California research indicated that the idea that vaping helps people quit is not actually true, and it is more likely that it perpetuates nicotine addiction.

Dr Rajesh Gupta, Director of Pulmonology and Critical Care at Fortis Healthcare in Greater Noida and a member of ‘Mothers Against Vaping’ said, “There is a reason why it is difficult to quit smoking for those using e-cigarettes or vaping as an alternative. Because these devices deliver nicotine more smoothly to the body, often in higher quantities.” “The person remains addicted to nicotine and cannot give up e-cigarettes or smoking. When nicotine vapours are absorbed in the bloodstream while using an e-cigarette, it triggers a release of dopamine which is the brain’s pleasure chemical. This pleasure reinforcement sustains the addiction,” he said.

According to Gupta, there is also a chance that users of e-cigarettes, especially adolescents and the youth, may try more harmful substances through these electronic devices; hence, they are called new-age gateway devices.

In the New Zealand study, 25 years of data (1999 to 2023) was analysed from nearly 7,00,000 students aged 14 to 15 to examine the potential impact of vaping on smoking trends, the statement said.

While researchers expected to see a decline in smoking after vapes were introduced, they found that youth smoking rates in New Zealand were declining steeply before vaping began in 2010, and that progress has slowed.

The data suggests that vaping may be encouraging more experimentation among young people, it said.

Dr Bhawna Barmi, a psychologist and a member of ‘Mothers Against Vaping’ said adolescents try and experiment with new things due to peer pressure as they are driven by the desire to be perceived as socially acceptable and part of the latest trend.

“We need to understand that children in this age group are very impressionable, and manufacturers of vaping products allegedly exploit this age group by employing marketing tactics, including the use of social media influencers to depict that vaping is cool.

“They also make it easier for the youth to try out these addictive electronic gadgets by offering attractive flavours and positioning vapes as the latest must-have tech gadget,” she said.