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posted by martyb on Thursday September 15 2016, @11:37PM   Printer-friendly
from the put-that-in-your-pipe... dept.

Electronic cigarettes that heat propylene glycol and glycerol, with or without nicotine and flavours, have been found to be safe based on a new meta-analysis of studies:

An update to the Cochrane review on electronic cigarettes [DOI: 10.1002/14651858.CD010216.pub3] [DX] has restated the findings of the initial research, which was completed two years ago. It found that e-cigarettes are potentially a valuable smoking cessation aid, although there was not enough evidence to conclude that they helped people quit smoking confidently.

The updated review now also includes observational data from an additional 11 studies which found no serious side-effects from using e-cigs for up to two years. Aside from throat and mouth irritation, which commonly dissipated over time, the review's co-author, Jamie Hartmann-Boyce, said "in the short to medium term, we didn't find any evidence that they were associated with any serious side-effects."

Evidence from two trials found that e-cigarettes helped smokers to quit in the long term, but "the small number of trials, low event rates and wide confidence intervals around the estimates" meant that the researchers could not conclude with confidence that e-cigs helped smokers quit more than other cessation aids.


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  • (Score: 2) by Hyperturtle on Friday September 16 2016, @02:03PM

    by Hyperturtle (2824) on Friday September 16 2016, @02:03PM (#402782)

    I thought quitting smoking was to quit... smoking?

    What is inhaled is a secondary nature, as you can see with the popularity of e-cigs. Maybe it made sense in the past that quitting smoking equaled the elimination of the addiction, but that approach has changed due to technology (gum/patches didn't help with psychological addiction behaviors, which often is a contributor to failing to stop smoking)

    Mind you, smoking cessation is not the same as recovering from addiction. Most 'vapers' I know have zero intention to truly quit -- but are very happy there is a harm reduction technique that is inexpensive and works very well and is much less olfactorily offensive to others.

    Of course, I'd hope people would try to kick the addiction, but I also know smart people that keep track of how much of a dose they appear to get and tend to reorder the products that give them the most 'bang for their buck'. Reduction of nicotine via this mechanism of delivery is not on their radar at all; its about maximizing the gain via cost control and thus is about *addiction management* as opposed to nicotine usage cessation.

    And as one person told me, it beats picking out cigarettes based on the tar content. Some people really preferred a given brand, but many that had smoked for years... just wanted the cheapest and hopefully a selection from among the least damanging of the evils proffered for sale. Now they can be choosey and improve their health at the same time while still indulging (if you can call it that).

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