It’s almost 2025, so we all know that smoking and tobacco products are harmful, and are aware of the addictive power of nicotine. Right?
t’s the worst week of the year for wellness marketing. So all this week, let’s bring the science before you make any health-related New Year’s Resolutions. And very likely, save you some €. From diets to exercise to supplements, we’ll look at the science behind your most common New Year’s resolutions. We’ll start with the topic with the topic that always loses me several followers everytime I post on it: vaping.
If you are considering quitting smoking in the coming month, well done. This will be obvious, but as a doctor, I highly recommend quitting smoking. Your best ally is your GP or sign-up for free supports at Quit.ie. The evidence just doesn’t support vaping. Nor, frankly, do the economics of just substituting one addiction for another.
Did you know? Quit.ie is FREE. And yes! – it’s available to those who are still struggling to get off of vape after switching from cigarettes.
The science: a combination of psychological support and nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) is the most effective way to quit smoking. In some cases, there are also some short-term medications that can help.
However, this is really important: Quit, don’t switch. Vaping is not a recommended way to quit smoking.
Wait, that not what you heard? Vaping is not recommended by anyone who isn’t in/directly profiting from vape or funded by the tobacco industry.** I’m pointing it out because, statistically, there is only a 30% chance that you already knew that the tobacco industry owned vape.
It’s easy to forget that it was less than 70 years ago, the tobacco industry published the famous “Frank Statement” aiming to cast doubt on research that was emerging on the link between cigarettes and lung disease/cancer.
Who pays for this?
It’s a good question. An RTE journalist asked an industry lobbiest this question earlier this summer, and got no answer. Sadly, he dropped the pursuit. when he was directed to a front company as an answer. When you see independent consumer “voices” or lobbies, ask: who is paying for that? You may find yourself re-directed to obscure institutes or foundations, most of which have stated policies of not disclosing their funding sources. These are front companies, and are straight out of industry playbooks used by quite a few industries now, but this book was written by tobacco. They usually say it’s for independence, but transparency is important. Internationally, we accept that it is standard ethics that funding sources are transparent == in everything from policitics to research – because conflict of interest matters.
For years, the tobacco industry had a script: it talked personal responsibility, paid scientists to publish research that raised questions about the legitimate science that found harms associated with smoking, made promises to self-regulate their industry, paid huge money for lobbies, introduced “safer” products, and denied the marketing to children. They used “front companies” that did not disclos/identify donors to fund lobbying groups that lobbied against proposed government regulations.
(**The NHS is an outlier among global health authorities in suggesting that vaping is a recommended form of quitting smoking. This may – or may not – be due to the fact that PHE have taken funding, albeit indirectly via the NNA, from tobacco-funded organisations.)
It’s never too late to quit, and ask for help if you need it. There are evidence-based ways to quit. #vaping is not a recommended way to quit smoking. Like many docs, help patient’s quit all the time – and never substitute e-cigs Don’t replace one addiction with another addiction.
Talk to your children/teens about #vaping. It is not harmless, and nicotine has real effects on developing adolescent brain. In a 2019 Irish study, 37% of teens in 2019 had tried e-cigs, and 18% were currently using. Irish research shows that teenagers who use e-cigarettes are up to five times more likely to start smoking compared to those who don’t .
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