How Effective Are E-Cigarettes for Quitting Smoking? Success Rate Below 10%

Thailand’s e-cigarette tobacco control policy promotion meeting was held at The Sukosol Hotel in Bangkok. At the meeting, Loonachai, director of Thailand’s Tobacco Control Research Center, said the center is part of the Ministry of Commerce committee conducting feasibility analysis on import policy for e-cigarettes. To protect public health and keep young people away from the harms of e-cigarettes, experts, academics, lawyers, and staff from the Department of Disease Control of the Ministry of Public Health on the committee unanimously recommended maintaining the ban on e-cigarette imports.

“An e-cigarette is a vaping device that is used by vaporizing a specially formulated liquid. Ninety-five percent of e-cigarette e-liquid on the market contains nicotine,” said Dr. Napara, an internal medicine physician at Ramathibodi Hospital. “In other words, e-cigarettes can cause nicotine addiction. Some people hope to use e-cigarettes to quit smoking, but related data show that only 5%–9% of people successfully quit with the help of e-cigarettes, while the addition of e-cigarettes actually reduces quit rates by 27%.”

Dr. Napara also said: “Nicotine is more addictive than heroin, because smokers can add nicotine levels in e-liquid that are 3 to 10 times higher than in regular cigarettes. Using e-cigarettes can cause a rapid heart rate, high blood pressure, constriction of blood vessels in the brain, and in severe cases stroke. In addition, the heavy metals in e-cigarette vapor are also dangerous. For example, nickel and chromium can damage the lungs, and cadmium toxicity can be absorbed by the kidneys.”

“Among adolescents who continue using e-cigarettes, the likelihood of becoming addicted to conventional cigarettes is higher than among those who have never used e-cigarettes. In other words, if you smoke e-cigarettes, quitting smoking will be even harder! In addition, animal experiments have confirmed that e-cigarette vapor can cause lung lesions and then lead to chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.”

“People who use e-cigarettes are setting a bad example for the next generation,” Dr. Napara said. “In particular, parents who smoke at home, or social role models with smoking habits, can subtly encourage young people to imitate them.”