For smokers vaping twice as effective

Monday, 4 February 2019

“We’ve long known that vaping is a very effective way to give up smoking but to have it now confirmed by the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine is incredibly compelling,” says Jonathan Devery, director of Alt New Zealand.

Mr Devery’s comments follow a clinical trial which involved almost 900 smokers in the UK. It found 18% of e-cigarette users were smoke-free after a year, compared to 9.9% of people using nicotine-replacement products such as patches, gum, lozenges and sprays.

Already New Zealand’s Associate Minister of Health, the Ministry of Health, health pressure group ASH, Quitline New Zealand, and public health organisation Hapai Te Hauora all openly acknowledging the health and economic benefits of smokers transitioning to vaping. While Asthma and Respiratory Foundation NZ publicly accept vaping is a useful tool in the battle against smoking.

“Now we have the New England Journal of Medicine confirming it’s nearly twice as effective as other nicotine-replacement products for smokers wanting to quit. It’s significant research.”

He says the findings are timely given the Government is set to amend the 1990 Smoke-free Environments Act, with the key emphasis to support smokers to switch to significantly less harmful alternatives such as vaping.

“There is a growing consensus in the political, medical and scientific world that vaping significantly helps people quit smoking. If New Zealand is ever going to achieve Smoke Free 2025, vaping products need to be readily available and advertised responsibly.”

Mr Devery says any talk about vaping being a gateway to smoking for young people is ridiculous. His companies VAPO and Alt only sell vaping products to existing smokers over 18 years of age and the Government itself does not accept such a claim.

A cabinet paper in November which encourages the Government to amend the smoke-free legislation concludes ‘there is no robust evidence’ that vaping acts as a gateway to smoking.

It also notes that the British Medical Association has concluded that current data on vaping and smoking does not support a gateway effect, noting that smoking has continued to decline while vaping has become increasingly available.

“Vaping is a very effective way for Kiwis to quit cigarettes and it’s certainly not to blame for people smoking in the first place. Given the growing mountain of evidence, we’re looking forward to vaping gaining greater acceptance in the eyes of the law and across society,” says Jonathan Devery.

Summary of The New England Journal of Medicine’s ‘Randomized Trial of E-Cigarettes verses Nicotine-Replacement Therapy’: https://www.nejm.org/doi/10.1056/NEJMoa1808779

www.getalt.co.nz

ENDS

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