Call it quits

MORE evidence is in that so-called e-cigarettes do let smokers stop smoking. Such cigarettes deliver to the user an oral nicotine hit without the associated carcinogens and other noxious chemicals found in tobacco smoke, by evaporating a solution containing the drug. A study just published in Addiction by Jamie Brown of University College, London, and his colleagues suggests they are 60% more successful at getting people to give up tobacco by themselves (ie, without enrolling on a formal anti-smoking programme) than either willpower alone or previously available quitting aids like nicotine patches.

Dr Brown and his team looked at data collected by the Smoking Toolkit Study, a surveillance programme run by them, and paid for by Cancer Research UK, a charity, and Britain’s health ministry. This programme tracks smokers’ behaviour in England, month by month, and has been asking about e-cigarettes since July 2009. The questions posed to participants include whether they have tried to give up smoking, have succeeded, and what approach they have taken.