E-cigarettes 'better for quitting smoking'

A Queen Mary University-led trial has found that e-cigarettes are almost twice as effective as nicotine replacements for helping smokers quit.

The study of 886 smokers found that 18 per cent of smokers who used e-cigarettes to quit remained smoke-free after a year, compared with 9.9 per cent of those using nicotine-replacement treatments. The researchers hope that the findings will lead to vaping devices being routinely offered by stop-smoking services.

Published in the New England Journal of Medicine, the study claims that in addition to having higher rates of quitting, more e-cigarette users reduced their smoking by at least 50 per cent. The devices also provided higher satisfaction and were rated as more helpful than nicotine-replacement treatment.

Public Health England has called for e-cigarettes to be made available on the NHS within five years, contentiously pointing several times to a body of research that suggests they are at least 95 per cent less harmful than cigarettes.

Peter Hajek, lead researcher from Queen Mary University of London, said: "Although a large number of smokers report that they have quit smoking successfully with the help of e-cigarettes, health professionals have been reluctant to recommend their use because of the lack of clear evidence from randomised controlled trials. This is now likely to change."

All participants in the trial were dependent on smoking and had previously failed to give up, and attended NHS stop-smoking services.