Strong evidence vaping is ‘a gateway’ to conventional smoking

Vaping is a ‘gateway’ to conventional smoking with those using e-cigarettes three times as likely to take up tobacco, a study reveals.

Greg Hunt announced in June that consumers would not be allowed to buy e-cigarettes with vaporiser nicotine without a prescription from January 1 2021. Picture: Jose Luis Magana/AFP

Vaping is a “gateway” to conventional smoking with those using e-cigarettes three times as likely to take up tobacco, a study reveals.

Lead researcher and epidemiologist Emily Banks said there was “insufficient evidence” that vaping could help smokers give up the habit, with no significant difference in “quit rates” between people who used “nicotine delivering” e-cigarettes and non-nicotine products or no intervention. “We have strong evidence that it’s a gateway to smoking,” Professor Wood said.

“And we have got quite weak or low quality evidence that it might help with quitting,” she said.

“We found non-smokers who use e-cigarettes have around three times the risk of taking up regular smoking than non-smokers who have avoided e-cigarettes.”

The latest research, a joint project by the Australian National University and University of Melbourne, was commissioned as part of the so-called “Vaping Inquiry” agreed to by Health Minister Greg Hunt in 2018.

Mr Hunt announced in June that consumers would not be allowed to buy e-cigarettes with vaporiser nicotine without a prescription from January 1 next year.

The latest research on e-­cigarettes also found former smokers who vaped were about twice as likely to relapse and start smoking again compared with those who did not use e-cigarettes.

According to the report, vaping is marketed in many countries as an “aid” to quit smoking and ­“cessation is a commonly reported reason for use”.

Professor Wood said vaping continued to be promoted as a tool that is “good for stopping smoking” but most smokers who give up did so “unaided”.

“If there is evidence (e-cigarettes) are safe and effective for ceasing smoking, we need to help them to be available but at the moment we don’t have that evidence,” she said. “But the companies that stand to make billions from e-cigarettes … don’t have the trial evidence that would support smokers better access.”

Data from three different randomised control trials analysed in the latest report showed smokers who vaped with nicotine to try to quit compared with other replacement therapies were significantly more likely to be using any form of nicotine at a follow-up point.

One study showed about 80 per cent of people who successfully quit smoking continued to use e-cigarettes one year later, while only 9 per cent who used other nicotine replacement therapy continued to use it.

Vaping in Australia has “increased significantly” in the past six years according to the report.

The report also said the proportion of people who never smoked has increased, especially among young people.

In 2019, 96.6 per cent of young people aged 14-17 had never smoked.

Mr Hunt announced in June that consumers would not be allowed to buy e-cigarettes with vaporiser nicotine without a prescription from January 1 next year.