I’ll Say It Again: E-Cigarettes Are Still Safer Than Smoking

Although evidence shows that e-cigarettes are safer than smoking, more people than before believe that they are harmful as well.

January is the season for New Year’s resolutions, and if you are one of the world’s one billion smokers, your resolution may be to quit smoking. For some people, this year’s quit attempt may involve e-cigarettes. A recent study published in the BMJ in the UK suggests that these devices helped at least 18,000 smokers successfully quit in 2015 who otherwise would not have done so. That is very good news, but how many quit attempts will happen in 2017 because e-cigarettes are available? I’m not sure.

Since I last wrote about e-cigarettes in this column a year ago, headlines about the dangers of these devices have continued to appear, with no sign of letting up. The result is clear: compared with a year ago, more people today believe that e-cigarettes are just as harmful as smoking. In fact, these incorrect perceptions have increased year by year, from fewer than one in ten adults in 2013 to one quarter by this summer. Surveys of smokers show a similar pattern, with more and more people believing that e-cigarettes are more harmful than tobacco or equally harmful.

However, we know these perceptions of harm are wrong. There is now very strong evidence from a range of studies that e-cigarettes deliver nicotine without involving the combustion that occurs in smoking. Compared with smoking, the risks of e-cigarettes are far lower.