After 15 years of holding off, the rate among Americans who quit smoking has dramatically increased to 6 percent in 2014 to 2015. The researchers from San Diego School of Medicine in California are certain that e-cigarettes played a major role.
According to the director of the University's Center for Research and Intervention in Tobacco Control, lead researcher Shu-Hong Zhu, "From 2014 to 2015, more e-cigarette users tried to quit cigarette smoking and succeeded in quitting than those who didn't use e-cigarettes." He added that people must not be doubtful to regard e-cigarettes of abdicating, above all if they have tried everything in the past.
Health claims that Zhu also believed that the national tobacco control campaign launched in 2012 have assisted in the rise of the rate of those who quit smoking. He and his team gathered some data from more than 160,000 people who participated in the five surveys conducted from 2001 to 2015. Participants consist of 22,500 current smokers and 2,100 who quit recently.
A specialist, however, stressed that the study cannot verify if e-cigarettes could help cigarettes smokers really quit. The head of the Smoking Cessation Leadership Center at the Univesity of California in San Francisco, Dr. Steven Schroeder mentioned that at some phase when there is an intensified use of e-cigarettes, the "quit smoking" rate increased and the number of frequent adult smokers declined.
Both Schroeder and Zhu acknowledged that e-cigarettes may not be completely safe but is doubtless less risky compared to regular cigarettes. Schroeder said that it would a lot healthier for the state if the smokers in the US which reached to 40 million will instead use e-cigarettes. However, a drawback of the study is that information on how the participants really quit smoking is not obtainable.
Last year, the US Food and Drug Administration wrapped up the rules with the regulation of e-cigarettes but the Trump administration postponed such implementation. Up to now, it's still a heated debate if e-cigarettes should be regulated or stay as a consumer-driven product. Since e-cigarettes mainly contain nicotine in liquid form, adversaries want to impose limits on them and should be taxed as being a tobacco product.
