Lancet Study Confirms E-cigarettes’ Smoking-Cessation Benefits: U.S. Smoking Rates Are Declining Yea

Today’s update, May 26: A recent paper published in the internationally authoritative journal The Lancet Regional Health states that e-cigarettes have played an effective role in reducing the smoking rate in the United States (number of cigarette users/total population * 100%). As e-cigarette use has increased, cigarette use in the U.S. has declined year by year.

Image: The paper was published in The Lancet Regional Health

A recently released report from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reached the same conclusion. The report confirmed that from 2020 to 2021, e-cigarette use rose from 3.7% to 4.5%, while cigarette use in the U.S. fell from 12.5% to 11.5%. The adult smoking rate in the United States has now dropped to its lowest level in nearly 60 years.

Led by Eastern Virginia Medical School in the United States, the study tracked more than 50,000 American adults over four years and found that e-cigarette use “is associated with smoking cessation behavior.” The World Health Organization website describes smoking cessation as “quit tobacco,” meaning stopping tobacco use, since the main harms of cigarettes—including nearly all 69 carcinogens—are produced through tobacco combustion. The study shows that many e-cigarette users were previously smokers who switched to e-cigarettes without a tobacco combustion process because they wanted to quit smoking.

A large body of research has confirmed that e-cigarettes can help with smoking cessation. High-quality evidence from internationally authoritative medical organizations such as Cochrane indicates that e-cigarettes can be used to quit smoking and are more effective than nicotine replacement therapy. In December 2021, a paper published in the Journal of the American Medical Association stated that smokers who quit with the help of e-cigarettes had a success rate eight times higher than that of ordinary smokers.

However, not every smoker recognizes the positive role of e-cigarettes. Research shows that smokers’ choices are directly related to their understanding. For example, some smokers who lack relevant knowledge may return to smoking cigarettes after using e-cigarettes, which is even more harmful. A study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association in February 2022 confirmed that when e-cigarette users resume smoking cigarettes, the concentration of carcinogen metabolites in urine can increase by as much as 621%.

 “We should improve public understanding of e-cigarettes, and in particular, it is very important to prevent smokers from returning to cigarettes,” the authors wrote in the paper. They said more research should be conducted on cigarette–e-cigarette usage patterns to identify the potential factors driving smokers to change, and to provide more evidence in support of public health policy planning.