Are E-Cigarettes The Most Effective Smoking Cessation Aid?

From their launch in the mid-2000s up until the present day, vape kits have developed into one of the most popular and most effective tools to help people in their stop-smoking journeys.

With the help of expert support, a 2021 review cited by the NHS found that vaping can be twice as effective as other approved forms of nicotine replacement therapy, particularly gum and patches.

The biggest reason for this can be attributed to psychology; smoking addiction is complex and replicating the same hit smoking provides in a much safer form was difficult until the advent of e-cigarettes, e-liquids and nicotine salts.

However, over the past few years, there have been other heavily marketed products marketed as alternatives to smoking rather than ways to quit, often using somewhat dubious loopholes to market products that contain tobacco publicly.

Here are some of the most notable examples and why vaping is often a better solution.

Nicotine Pouches

One of several new nicotine products, nicotine pouches are small microfibre pouches similar in look and design to a tea bag which is placed in the mouth and provides a gradual hit of nicotine that is absorbed between the lip and the gum.

They are often known as snus, although this is a misnomer. Whilst all snus are nicotine pouches, not all nicotine pouches are snus.

Snus, a Swedish smokeless tobacco product, are made using ground tobacco, salt, flavourings and alkaliser, making it closer to snuff or heated tobacco than a traditional vape.

Tobacco snus are legal to own but illegal to buy in the UK and were first brought to public attention due to their disproportionate popularity amongst footballers, leading to a report by Loughborough University.

They are popular in no small part due to their discreetness compared to smoking, but there have been concerns that this has led to increased repetitive use compared to vaping, which through its method of operation requires a user to take breaks between puffs.

There have been case studies of people using over a dozen pouches in just a few hours, leading to high blood pressure, nausea, confusion and, in some cases, hospitalisation.

Nicotine pouches can be safe to use, in the same way that nicotine gum and pouches are, and whether it is the right solution to stop smoking depends on how they are used.

At present, whilst one nicotine pouch brand is approved in the United States for smoking cessation, more comprehensive independent research is needed before it is likely to be seen as an alternative to vaping.

However, Swedish snus are more dangerous because they contain tobacco and all of the carcinogenic ingredients and compounds that come with that. Even though it is not heated, it is impossible to completely remove that risk.

Heated Tobacco

The subject of an advertising controversy in February, heated tobacco is much closer to smoking and tobacco use than it is to vaping, despite having a somewhat similar operation.

Unlike vaping, where coils will heat e-liquids or nicotine salts to create a vapour which contains nicotine, heated tobacco uses an electric current to heat tobacco enough to provide a hit of nicotine but not enough to cause it to burn and dispense harmful tobacco smoke.

It primarily benefits from a legal loophole in current tobacco advertising and promotional legislation that states specifically that tobacco products are smoked, chewed, sucked or sniffed, which heated tobacco technically is not.

It was a somewhat controversial interpretation of the rules, particularly since the limited studies available on heated tobacco products suggest that they are much more harmful than vaping.

They are also much less effective than quitting, to the point that a 2018 French study found that they were almost twice as likely to become a gateway to smoking cigarettes than act as a means of quitting, and one major tobacco manufacturer conceded that they were potentially as addictive.

Part of the reason for this is the method of delivery; people who use heated tobacco products take a lot more puffs at quicker intervals than through conventional smoking, creating more common and sharper peaks in blood nicotine levels than smoking or vaping.

Conventional Nicotine Replacement Therapy

Vaping was invented because other conventional nicotine replacement products were found wanting, and whilst other forms of nicotine replacement therapy are effective and safe, they do not always work for every person.

The slow delivery of nicotine found in patches and gum works for some people better than others, whilst vapes can provide the right levels of nicotine whenever they feel the craving, but without the levels of harm associated with tobacco.