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 Presenting findings from a study of almost 6,000
smokers over five years, the researchers said the results suggest
e-cigarettes could play an important role in reducing smoking rates
and hence cutting tobacco-related deaths and illnesses.
As well as causing lung cancer and other chronic respiratory
diseases, tobacco smoking is also a major contributor to
cardiovascular diseases, the world's number one killer.
"E-cigarettes could substantially improve public health because of
their widespread appeal and the huge health gains associated with
stopping smoking," said Robert West of University College London's
epidemiology and public health department, who led the study.
Mainly funded by the charity Cancer Research UK and published in the
journal Addiction, West's study surveyed 5,863 smokers between 2009
and 2014 who had tried to quit without using prescription medicines
or professional help.
 The results were adjusted for a range of factors that might
influence success at quitting, West said - including age, nicotine
dependence, previous attempts to give up smoking, and whether
quitting was gradual or abrupt.
They showed that 20 percent of people trying to quit with the aid of
e-cigarettes reported having stopped smoking conventional
cigarettes.
That compared with just 10.1 percent of those using over-the-counter
aids such as nicotine replacement patches or gum. Of those using
willpower alone, 15.4 percent had managed to stop.
E-cigarettes contain nicotine - a stimulant not thought to be
particularly harmful, although it is addictive - delivering it in a
water vapor rather than in smoke from burning tobacco.
A relatively new product, they have become highly controversial,
with public health opinion split over whether they might be a
powerful tool in helping those hooked on cigarettes to finally give
up, or whether they simply replace one bad habit with another.
Because switching to e-cigarettes from tobacco ones does not entail
kicking the addiction to nicotine, some specialists say they could
spell the end of smoking - which the World Health Organisation (WHO)
calls "one of the biggest public health threats the world has ever
faced".
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But critics point to a lack of long-term scientific evidence to
support the safety and effectiveness of e-cigarettes, and warn they
may also re-normalize smoking, enticing children or other
non-smokers to take it up.
West agreed that evidence about long-term use is e-cigarettes is
scant, but stressed the balance of risks had to be weighed against
the very strong evidence of tobacco's harms.
"It's not clear whether long-term use of e-cigarettes carries health
risks, but from what is known about the contents of the vapor these
will be much less than from smoking," he said.
Smoking tobacco kills half of all those who do it, according to the
WHO, and has a death toll of 6 million people a year.
West said evidence shows that smokers who seek professional help
from doctors or health clinics that provide stop-smoking services
have the highest success rates in quitting.
"These almost triple a smoker's odds of successfully quitting
compared with going it alone or relying on over-the-counter
products," he said.
(Reporting by Kate Kelland; Editing by Catherine Evans)
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