America’s e-cigarette addiction has led to a series of class action lawsuits against popular brands that allegedly marketed to kids. Juul is among the e-cigarette companies insisting its vaping device is designed to help adults quit smoking.

And perhaps it does, says the UK, where a study found smokers using e-cigarettes quit smoking at twice the rate of those who used nicotine patches or gum, according to a report in The Guardian. Researchers led by Peter Hajek from Queen Mary University of London looked at 880 smokers who went to the NHS for smoking cessation assistance. Half were given the gum or a patch and the other half received a starter e-cig kit with instructions to buy replacement cartridges when they ran out of vaping liquid.

Eighteen percent of the vaping group had quit smoking a year later, but only 9.9 percent of the gum/patch group had quit smoking. The results were published in the January 2019 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.

However, a majority of the vaping group continued to vape, but the people who had chosen the gum or patch were rarely still using either one.

The UK’s NHS stops short of approving switching to e-cigarettes to quit smoking, but there are differences between products, regulations and attitudes in the UK and the U.S.

America’s e-cigarette addiction is fueled by Juul pods that may contain up to 59 mg of nicotine per ml. In the UK, an e-cigarette may not contain more than 20mg per ml.

In the U.S., anti-smoking campaigners are more apt to want to stop vaping and smoking, period. In the UK, The Guardian found a higher tolerance for the idea that it’s acceptable for people to have less harmful vices rather than ban them completely.

America’s E-cigarette Addiction Exposes Users to Toxins

Last year, the University of California-Riverside found 99 different chemical flavorings were mixed in the 20 top-selling vaping e-liquids. One single flavor contained 22 to 47 chemicals. Ethyl maltol is one of the chemicals that was found in more than half of the vaping juices tested and is known to be toxic to living cells.

Another dangerous chemical flavoring is diacetyl, which provides a buttery flavor to vaping e-liquids, but is associated with “popcorn lung.” The diacetyl-associated disease became known when workers at microwave popcorn manufacturing plants were diagnosed with the lung ailment in the 1990s.

Formaldehyde, a chemical used in embalming fluid, can be produced when an e-liquid becomes overheated or when too little liquid reaches the heating element. Formaldehyde is considered a probable human carcinogen by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and may cause myeloid leukemia.

The core substance that makes vaping addictive is nicotine. Even though the UK’s NHS has said nicotine is “relatively harmless,” many studies contradict this opinion.

The Indian Journal of Medical and Paediatric Oncology published “Harmful Effects of Nicotine” in 2015 that said nicotine causes an “increased risk of cardiovascular, respiratory and gastrointestinal disorders” and decreases the body’s immune response. The report also pointed to nicotine as a cause of oxidative stress and DNA mutation that can lead to cancer.

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This article is not legal advice. It is presented
for informational purposes only.