Mass General: Using Cigarettes and Vapes Together May Aid Quitting

A recent study by researchers at Mass General for Children in the United States suggests that parents who use both traditional cigarettes and e-cigarettes may be more willing to accept smoking cessation treatment, because most people begin using e-cigarettes in order to quit smoking.

Many smoking parents start using e-cigarettes out of a desire to quit. However, many of them eventually become dual users of cigarettes and e-cigarettes, maintaining their dependence on nicotine. For the sake of their children’s health, they may choose to smoke conventional cigarettes while socializing outside, and use only e-cigarettes after returning home, because they believe e-cigarette vapor is far less harmful.
 

But as negative coverage of e-cigarettes has increased, Nabi-Burza, the lead researcher at the Center for Tobacco Research and Treatment, also expressed concern: could e-cigarette vapor, like cigarette smoke, cause the same level of harm to children?

Nabi-Burza’s concern is not supported by the evidence. A study published last July in the journal Nicotine & Tobacco Research, titled “Differences in Indoor Air Quality Between Exhaled E-Cigarette Aerosol and Cigarette Smoke,” showed that vaping has very little impact on indoor air. The researchers collected and tested air samples after e-cigarette use and after combustible cigarette use, and found that air samples from e-cigarettes were not significantly different from normal ambient air and dissipated within seconds; in essence, they were water vapor. By contrast, smoke from combustible cigarettes took at least 30–45 minutes for its concentration in the air to decline.

These findings are similar to air-sampling results from a vape shop in California conducted by the state Department of Public Health in 2017. The test was carried out in a relatively small, unventilated vape shop. To make the results more robust, employees and 13 customers in the store were all actively using e-cigarettes during sampling, meaning the test took place under conditions of extremely high exposure to e-cigarette vapor. Yet even under such poor conditions, the report still did not show hazardous or harmful chemicals in the e-cigarette vapor.

Because irresponsible media outlets have spread false information, the public has generally been left with a poor impression of e-cigarettes. It is hoped that these research findings will be seen by more people so they can develop a more complete and accurate understanding of e-cigarettes.

For example, China’s annual 315 consumer rights program previously stated that e-cigarettes are harmful to the human body. However, as a cigarette alternative product, e-cigarettes are far less harmful than cigarettes. Everything needs to be considered comparatively; one-sided evaluations can easily mislead the public.