It is
possible to quit smoking with electronic cigarettes as they can complement
other methods of giving up smoking such as gum and patches.
Electronic
cigarettes have been on the market for a relatively short time but already they
have quite a following. It has been estimated that there are well over a
million users – although this is compared to 9 million smokers – and not all of
them only use e-cigarettes. Some of this number also smoke tobacco or use
tobacco substitutes such as patches, sprays or gum as an aid to quitting
smoking. Some also use e-cigs as a means to smoke when out of the house although
with legislation catching up fast, this option may well be closing. Most users
argue that since the reason for banning smoking in public places was to prevent
secondary smoking, electronic cigarettes should not be banned but the argument
goes deeper than that.
Do
electronic cigarettes re-normalize smoking?
There are
many arguments on the question of whether vaping (as smoking an electronic
cigarette is called) encourages smoking but the general consensus seems to be
that it doesn't. Peer pressure is the reason most people give for starting to
smoke and with far fewer young smokers now beginning to smoke that pressure is
far less. Also, if a young person vapes a flavored electronic cigarette, the
flavor can be anything from watermelon to popcorn and after that a real
cigarette would come as a nasty surprise – from that point of view, vaping
could be said to be likely to put youngsters off smoking if anything. The
problem many people have with giving up is that they don’t have anything to do
with their hands – e-cigs give them something to fiddle with which gets them
over that hurdle, so in that respect, they are a good aid to quitting smoking.
What
about the chemicals
Electronic
cigarettes are thoroughly checked and recent legislation has brought them under
the umbrella of the UK body which is in overall charge of medicines and medical
products. This means that any changes to the chemical constituents in
electronic cigarettes will need to be passed by them so essentially you can be
sure that they will always be safe from now on because they will be rigorously
checked. Oncologists who specialize in lung cancers are convinced that with
more people using e-cigs all the while that deaths from cancer and smoking
related diseases will fall steadily from now on. Because people find it easier
to quit smoking when they have something which mimics all of the social side as
well as the nicotine hit, vaping should mean that more quitters will succeed.
Many people vape socially because it makes them feel more of a group than going
outside to smoke a cigarette in the cold and damp. With winter coming on, there
will be a sharp increase in the use of e-cigs and most people who try them
carry on and eventually become successful non-smokers although some keep up
using nicotine free electronic cigarette.
Although
the use of electroniccigarettes appears to be controversial, they appear to be a good help
in quitting smoking.
Rob Steen is
a freelance copywriter who is an expert in healthcare questions.He sometimes
writes for electronic cigarette supplier Prestige-Vaping.
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