--- title: Major Study Says E-Cigarettes Can Help Smokers Quit description: A nationally representative study says regular e-cigarette use may help smokers quit and does not raise the risk of relapse. canonical: https://time.com/5633554/e-cigarettes-smokers-quit/ author: Jamie Ducharme article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2019-07-24T17:10:40.000Z article:modified_time: 2023-12-12T22:25:09.000Z article:section: Health og:title: Daily E-Cigarette Use May Help Smokers Quit After All og:description: According to one of the most comprehensive studies yet og:url: https://time.com/5633554/e-cigarettes-smokers-quit/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltef36c530cfb3f17f/698a005b7cdbacb858d6109b/e-cigarettes.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1024 og:image:height: 576 og:image:alt: E-cigarette use og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Daily E-Cigarette Use May Help Smokers Quit After All twitter:description: According to one of the most comprehensive studies yet twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltef36c530cfb3f17f/698a005b7cdbacb858d6109b/e-cigarettes.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Daily E-Cigarette Use Can Help Smokers Quit, According to One of the Most Comprehensive Studies Yet > Sponsored content. 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Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-network-2026q3/newsletters?i=6d20ef4e-75c8-49a3-a99f-450f84998c85&cr=time-nl-network-2026q3-v1) ## Video: So, E-Cigs Might Be Way Less Harmful Than Actual Cigarettes [Watch (HLS stream): So, E-Cigs Might Be Way Less Harmful Than Actual Cigarettes](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/JVvlZ8r7.m3u8) (1:33)  _Published 2015-08-19. A study says electronic cigarettes are less harmful than regular cigarettes and advocates promotion of e-cigarettes as a way to help people quit._  by [Jamie Ducharme](https://time.com/author/jamie-ducharme/)  ## Jamie Ducharme Ducharme is a contributor to TIME. Updated: Dec 12, 2023 10:25 PM UTCPublished: Jul 24, 2019 5:10 PM UTC  An illustration shows a man exhaling smoke from an electronic cigarette in Washington, DC on October 2, 2018\. - In just three years, the electronic cigarette manufacturer Juul has swallowed the American market with its vaporettes in the shape of a USB key. Its success represents a public health dilemma for health authorities in the United States and elsewhere. (Photo by EVA HAMBACH / AFP) (Photo credit should read EVA HAMBACH/AFP/Getty Images) An illustration shows a man exhaling smoke from an electronic cigarette in Washington, DC on October 2, 2018\. - In just three years, the electronic cigarette manufacturer Juul has swallowed the American market with its vaporettes in the shape of a USB key. Its success represents a public health dilemma for health authorities in the United States and elsewhere. (Photo by EVA HAMBACH / AFP) (Photo credit should read EVA HAMBACH/AFP/Getty Images) EVA HAMBACH—AFP/Getty Images  by [Jamie Ducharme](https://time.com/author/jamie-ducharme/)  ## Jamie Ducharme Ducharme is a contributor to TIME. Updated: Dec 12, 2023 10:25 PM UTCPublished: Jul 24, 2019 5:10 PM UTC E-cigarettes have long been pitched as a healthier alternative to cigarettes, and one that could help smokers kick the habit by delivering nicotine without many of the dangerous byproducts of combustible tobacco products. But there’s plenty of debate in the scientific community as to whether that’s actually true. For every study that suggests[ e-cigarettes can help](https://time.com/5517247/e-cigs-more-effective-helping-smokers-quit-study/) smokers quit, there’s another[ that says they can’t](https://time.com/36090/study-e-cigarettes-do-not-help-people-quit-smoking/). Now, one of the most comprehensive studies yet provides solid support for daily vaping. It found that adult cigarette smokers who also used e-cigarettes every day were 77% more likely than non-users to have quit and stayed off cigarettes after two years. [The paper](https://academic.oup.com/ntr/advance-article-abstract/doi/10.1093/ntr/ntz114/5531618?redirectedFrom=fulltext), published in the journal _Nicotine & Tobacco Research_, used data from about 8,200 adults who participated in the nationally representative Population Assessment of Tobacco and Health Study. Each person provided information about their health, lifestyle and tobacco use, then updated researchers about their tobacco use a year and two years later. At the start of the study, only 3.6% of smokers reported daily e-cigarette use, while 18% reported more sporadic use. But people in that small group of daily vapers, the researchers found, were more likely than either periodic e-cigarette users or non-vapers to report abstaining from traditional cigarettes by the end of the study. Eleven percent of the original daily vapers reported being cigarette-free during both of the follow-up surveys, the researchers found—a relatively small portion overall, but a significant improvement over the 6% of non-vapers who had kicked the habit. Sporadic e-cigarette use, the researchers found, was not associated with higher odds of quitting, perhaps because these people were not using e-cigarettes in hopes of completely ditching combustible cigarettes, or because they could not satisfy their nicotine cravings with less-consistent use. Past studies that did not find a connection between vaping and smoking cessation may not have accounted for the differences in daily versus periodic use, the authors theorize. Some public-health experts also fear that a sustained nicotine habit, in the form of vaping, may increase a former smoker’s chances of relapse.[ One study](https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamainternalmedicine/fullarticle/2737916) published earlier this month found that to be true. But in the new study, daily vapers were only slightly more likely than non-users to revert back to cigarette smoking. About 4% of daily vapers who reported quitting after one year relapsed by the next year, compared to about 3% of non-vapers. E-cigarettes contain fewer known cancer-causing chemicals than traditional cigarettes, but they aren’t risk-free. An accumulating[ body of research](https://time.com/5442252/are-e-cigarettes-safe/) suggests they can cause heart and respiratory issues (although [one prominent study](https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/10.1161/JAHA.119.014519) on vaping and cardiovascular disease was later retracted), and those risks may compound when they’re used in tandem with cigarettes—a concerning prospect, since, as the new study shows, many smokers use both products. Nonetheless, the latest research offers some of the strongest evidence yet that e-cigarettes can play an important part in[ further reducing](https://time.com/5315907/smoking-rate-all-time-low/) cigarette-smoking rates in the U.S. _This post was updated to reflect the retraction of prior research._ ## Transcript Cigarettes is becoming less and less of an all inclusive term. Public Health England recently published a review that found electronic cigarettes to be 95 % less harmful than conventional cigarettes. Most chemicals that cause smoking- related diseases are not found in the electronic version. The number of people who believe e- cigarettes are just as dangerous or more dangerous than regular cigarettes has jumped 14 % since 2013, however. And perhaps, counterintuitively, The over- cautiousness worries some researchers. A director at Public Health England said this misperception may be keeping millions of smokers from quitting. He suggested that local stop smoking services should look to support e- cigarette users in their journey to quitting completely. Completely. Debates over E- cigarette's appeal to youths has caused some controversy. Public Health England's study, however, found an overwhelming majority of E- cigarette users are former tobacco users and found no evidence that E- cigarettes lead children to smoke regular tobacco. But a Centers for Disease Control. Prevention study, published earlier this year, found e- cigarettes had become the most used tobacco product among high schoolers. And almost half of all middle and high school students who smoked one type of tobacco product used multiple types. Critics worry that steps to increase e- cigarettes popularity with adults will translate to an increase in use among children. Both e- cigarettes and regular cigarettes can contain nicotine. 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