Vaping may not help smokers quit cigarettes after all and could even keep them puffing up for longer, a bombshell study has suggested.
Britons are taking up e-cigarettes in unprecedented numbers, with roughly one in 10 adults now estimated to be hooked on the habit.
But US scientists found smokers who switched to the increasingly popular devices were actually up to 5 per cent less likely to stop smoking altogether compared to those who didn’t vape.
The findings run counter to NHS advice that insists the devices are an effective way to quit traditional smoking.
Scientists today urged people against taking up the habit and warned that vaping would ‘keep them addicted to nicotine’.
Professor John Pierce, an expert in cancer prevention and public health at the University of California, San Diego and study co-author said: ‘Most smokers think vaping will help you quit smoking.
‘However, this belief is not supported by science to date.’
But independent researchers have urged caution over the findings, claiming the study was ‘unfair’ and presented ‘skewed’ results.
US scientists found smokers who switched to the increasingly popular devices were actually 5 per cent less likely to stop smoking altogether compared to those who didn’t vape
In the study, researchers assessed data from over 6,000 smokers in the US. Of these, 943 also vaped.
They found that people who vaped daily were 4.1 per cent less likely to quit smoking than their counterparts who didn’t vape at all.
Among those who vaped — but not every day — users were 5.3 less likely to quit smoking than non-vapers.
Professor Pierce said while it is generally accepted that e-cigarettes are safer than smoking, that doesn’t mean they are harmless.
‘While vapes generally don’t contain the same harmful chemicals as cigarette smoke, they have other risks, and we just don’t yet know what the health consequences of vaping over 20 to 30 years will be,’ he said.
Natalie Quach, a researcher at the University of California, San Diego and study lead author, added: ‘There’s still a lot we don’t know about the impact of vaping on people.
‘But what we do know is that the idea that vaping helps people quit isn’t actually true. It is more likely that it keeps them addicted to nicotine.’
However, Professor Peter Hajek, an expert of clinical psychology Queen Mary University of London, who was not involved in the study, said the new research had a critical problem.
Campaigners have long blamed predatory manufacturers for the ever-growing crisis, claiming they are intentionally luring kids in with colourful packaging, compared to highlighter pens, and child-friendly flavours such as bubblegum and cotton candy
He said: ‘The study used a method that automatically generates skewed results.’
‘In the vaping group, only those unable to stop smoking despite using vapes were included. Vapers who stopped smoking were excluded.’
‘This makes it an obviously unfair comparison, a bit like staging a competition between two schools after removing the best competitors from one of them.’
E-cigs allow people to inhale nicotine in a vapour — which is produced by heating a liquid, which typically contains propylene glycol, glycerine, flavourings, and other chemicals.
Unlike traditional cigarettes, they do not contain tobacco, nor do they produce tar or carbon — two of the most dangerous elements.
Nicotine’s effect on the brain is well known — within 20 seconds of inhalation, it triggers the release of chemical messengers such as dopamine, associated with reward and pleasure.
But it also increases heart rate and blood pressure and makes blood vessels constrict. This is because nicotine triggers the release of the hormone adrenaline.
Despite NHS chiefs insisting it is safer than smoking, vaping is not risk-free. E-cigarettes can contain harmful toxins and their long-term effects remains a mystery.
Experts are also concerned the high nicotine content might increase blood pressure and cause other heart problems.
Doctors have expressed fears there could be a wave of lung disease, dental issues and even cancer in the coming decades in people who took up the habit at a young age.
Last year, MailOnline also discovered the number of adverse side effects linked to vaping reported to UK regulators has now eclipsed 1,000, with five of them fatal.
The extensive list includes everything from headaches to strokes. Members of the public and medics can submit them.
In July, in world-first guidance setting out possible interventions to help people stop using tobacco products, the World Health Organization labelled the evidence around e-cigarettes as ‘complex’.
Vapes cannot be recommended as way to stop smoking as too little is known about the harms and benefits, the UN agency said.
The Government has announced that disposable vapes will be banned from June.
