Vaping: What We’ve Learnt for 2020

It’s been quite the year for the vaping industry. As more and more smokers understand the benefits that vaping affords, let’s take a look at some of the year’s top research studies and what we’ve learnt in 2019. 

Vaping Twice as Effective as Patches and Gums

If you vape, you’ll be aware of how effective e-cigarettes have been in your quest to become smoke-free. However, without any scientific research to back the wishful thinking up, the opinion had been very much limited to the vaping community. But at the beginning of 2019, the beliefs of the vaping community became scientific evidence when the (UK) National Institute of Health Research and Cancer Research UK funded a groundbreaking study that revealed just how effective e-cigs are. Led by a team of researchers from several UK based universities, the study found that e-cigarettes are almost twice as effective as other nicotine alternatives such as patches and gums in enabling a smoker to become smoke-free. 

By choosing to use e-cigarettes and e-liquids such as XEO vaporizers and Vapour2’s premium e-liquid, the journey to becoming smoke-free can be viewed as a much more effective way to give up smoking than it was before. The perceived hurdles and cravings that are traditionally so synonymous with smokers trying to quit are close to becoming a thing of the past.

E-Cigarettes Help 50,000 People Quit Smoking Each Year

If you were ever in doubt that vaping is a useful tool that helps smokers quit, then a recent study led by University College London has revealed some hugely positive news. Funded by Cancer Research UK, the study found that, since 2011, smokers using e-cigarettes to help them quit coincided with the success rate of smokers actually quitting. It might sound straightforward, however many critics of e-cigs debate whether vapers are simply swapping addictive cigarettes, for supposedly addictive e-cigarettes.

As we know, vaping is a healthy lifestyle choice that smokers undertake on a relatively short-term basis, as an aid to become smoke-free. Available in 4 different concentrations of nicotine (o%, 0.6%, 1.2% and 1.8%), vapers can gradually decrease the amount of nicotine that is in their e-liquid, which means that in time, smokers can become both smoke and nicotine-free. 

Less People Smoking, More People Vaping

In July, more good vaping news came via the NHS’s ‘Statistics on Smoking’ Report 2019. The report detailed that, as suspected, the most common reasons for vapers choosing to vape is because they want to quit smoking. Quickly becoming the go-to tool for people trying to quit smoking, the report found that the number of smokers continues to decline. 19.8% in 2011, the current percentage of smokers in the UK has since reduced to 14.4%, which is down from 14.9% in 2017. The numbers equate to around 1.8 million smokers quitting since 2011. What makes the report such fascinating reading, is that since 2011 the number of smokers quitting is mostly within the younger age groups of 18-24 with numbers exponentially decreasing the older the age group. Compared with the underage vaping epidemic that the US is currently experiencing, the latest figures show us that despite claims made by various media outlets, juvenile vaping in the UK remains relatively problem-free.

Update 2020. ASH (Action on smoking and health) have now confirmed in their recent press release on Vaping: “In 2019 around half as many Britons now vape as smoke, and the majority are ex-smokers

CDC Say Vaping is Safe

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ll know that the US vaping industry has become a focal point for scrutiny in recent months. From the controversy surrounding JUUL marketing their products to those under age to the outbreak of a mysterious vaping related illness that hospitalized thousands, the question of whether vaping is safe has been a prevalent one. While no specific ingredients have been mentioned as a cause, the understanding is that e-liquids containing THC has caused the illnesses. Furthermore, it is thought that the e-liquids in question may have been bought illicitly. 

Tasked with investigating the outbreak, the Centre for Disease Control (CDC) have since revealed that they do not believe the explosion of illnesses are linked to long-term vaping.

While the vaping epidemic in the US has dominated the headlines in recent months, the wealth of positive vaping news, research and study that took place in 2019 is something to give a hearty cheer about. Bring on 2020 and a smoke-free future for all.