50,000 people in the UK use e-cigarettes to help quit smoking every year
Introduction The latest research shows that e-cigarettes helped at least 50,000 British smokers quit smoking successfully in 2017. Jamie Brown, a researcher at University College London, the author of the study, pointed out that the UK has found a reasonable balance between e-cigarette regulation and promotion.
The study was recently published in the internationally renowned academic journal Addiction. The study was based on a follow-up survey of 50,498 smokers and analyzed the impact of e-cigarettes on smoking cessation activities in the UK from 2006 to 2017. The results of the study found that since 2011, with the increase in the use of e-cigarettes, the success rate of quitting smoking has increased year by year. In 2015, when the use of e-cigarettes in the UK began to level off, the success rate of quitting smoking also began to stabilize. In 2017, 50,700 to 69,930 smokers stopped smoking with the help of e-cigarettes.
The UK develops e-cigarettes as an effective means of tobacco control
In the UK, health officials regard e-cigarettes as a safe alternative to traditional cigarettes and an effective means of quitting smoking. The latest report from the UK Department of Public Health shows that at least 1.3 million people have completely quit smoking due to e-cigarettes.
The study also pointed out that the association between the use of e-cigarettes during the quitting period and the success rate of quitting smoking is positively correlated. The UK has found a reasonable balance between e-cigarette regulation and promotion, said Emma Beard. On the one hand, marketing is regulated, and non-smokers of any age rarely use e-cigarettes. At the same time, millions of smokers are using e-cigarettes to quit smoking or reduce their smoking.
Professor Peter Hajek, director of the Tobacco Dependence Research Group at Queen Mary University of London, pointed out that research shows that with the increase in the popularity of e-cigarettes, the success rate of smokers quitting smoking and the overall quitting rate have increased. Those who cant find an effective way to quit smoking are benefiting from e-cigarettes.
Reasonable regulation is the soil for benign development
The study by University College London also pointed out that these progress and results were achieved because the UK has a very strong atmosphere of tobacco control, the regulatory standards for e-cigarettes are relatively loose, and smokers generally have a high motivation to quit smoking.
The UK hopes to achieve a smoke-free society by 2030, and public health officials and politicians hope to achieve this goal through e-cigarettes. Deborah Robson, a senior postdoctoral researcher in tobacco addiction at Kings College London, said: The UK has a long history of using harm reduction methods to improve public health. Based on decades of research experience, we have found that nicotine is not the most harmful substance in tobacco. The millions of toxic gases and tar particles brought by tobacco combustion are what really kill smokers. Not long ago, the well-known American media VICE published a commentary article, pointing out that the UK has developed e-cigarettes into an effective means of tobacco control through a gradual e-cigarette regulatory system.