Vape can be used as a smoking cessation tool

Kenneth Warner, dean emeritus of the University of Michigan School of Public Health and Avedis Donabedian Distinguished University Professor Emeritus, said there is sufficient evidence to support the use of vape as an aid to smoking cessation in adults.

"Too many adults who want to quit smoking can't do it," Warner said in a statement. "Vape are the first new tool to help them in decades. However, relatively few smokers and health care professionals are aware of their potential value."

In a study published in Nature Medicine, Warner and colleagues looked at vape from a global perspective, examining countries that promote vape as a way to quit smoking and those that do not.

The group of authors said that while the U.S. and Canadian agencies acknowledge the potential benefits of using vape, they believe there is insufficient evidence to recommend vape for smoking cessation.

However, in the UK and New Zealand, there is high-level support and promotion of vape as a first-line cessation treatment option.

We believe that governments, medical professional groups and individual health care professionals in countries such as the United States, Canada and Australia should give greater consideration to the potential of vape in promoting smoking cessation, Warner said. Vape are not a panacea for ending the devastation caused by smoking, but they can contribute to achieving this noble public health goal.

Warner's previous research found overwhelming evidence that vape are an effective smoking cessation tool for adults in the United States, where hundreds of thousands of people die each year from smoking-related diseases.

In addition to assessing differences in regulatory activity across countries, the researchers examined evidence that vape promotes smoking cessation, the health effects of vape, and the impact on clinical care.

They also cited the FDA's designation of some vape brands as suitable for protecting public health - a criterion needed to gain marketing approval. The action indirectly implies that the FDA believes vape can help some people who otherwise would not do so to quit smoking, the researchers said.

Warner and colleagues conclude that acceptance of promoting vape as a smoking cessation tool may depend on ongoing efforts to reduce access to and use of vape products by young people who have never smoked. These two goals can and should coexist.

Study co-authors include Neal Benowitz of the University of California, San Francisco, Department of Medicine; Ann McNeill of the National Center on Addiction at King's College London, UK; and Nancy Rigotti of Harvard Medical School, Department of Medicine.