Vapes best to help quit smoking, anti smokers campaigners say

HARM reduction campaigners are urging health officials to take note of a major new international study of 27,000 smokers which finds that vapes are the most effective tool for helping smokers to quit their deadly habit.
The review by experts from the Cochrane network found that using vapes leads to better chances of quitting smoking than patches, gums, lozenges or other traditional Nicotine Replacement Therapies.
Smokers who use vapes are more than twice as likely to quit than those who rely on behavioral support, the study found.
Joseph Magero, chairman of the Campaign for Safer Alternatives, said today: “This important study provides yet more proof that vapes – and other modern alternative nicotine products – can help to save the lives of Kenyan smokers.
Every year, thousands of Kenyans are dying prematurely because they’re unable to kick their cigarette habit. Yet the science shows with high certainty that vapes and nicotine pouches are far less harmful and offer adult smokers a route away from deadly tobacco.
“The Cochrane review should therefore be essential reading for the Ministry of Health officials currently considering new regulations for harm reduction products, as it exposes many of the claims being made against them as myth and misinformation.”
The Ministry said it is reviewing the Tobacco Act of 2007 following campaigns against vapes and pouches.
Jamie Hartmann-Boyce, an assistant professor at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, who co-led the Cochrane review, called for evidence-based policy-making.
“We have very clear evidence that, though not risk-free, nicotine e-cigarettes are substantially less harmful than smoking. Some people who haven’t had success in the past with other quit aids have found e-cigarettes have helped them.”
Magero said: “Instead of listening to the scaremongering of activists, our health officials should be heeding international evidence showing the benefits of modern nicotine alternatives.”
“The latest Cochrane review is yet more confirmation of how these products are saving lives around the world. Sweden is about to achieve smoke-free status, in large part thanks to the availability of alternative nicotine products, while the health service in England is giving free vapes to smokers to encourage them to quit.
“However, Kenya is in danger of heading in the wrong direction, turning away the life-saving potential of these innovative products. To prevent unnecessary deaths, we need evidence-based policies, not dogma and propaganda.”
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