Smokers Who Use E-Cigarettes Not More Likely to Quit, Study Suggests

A study of smokers finds those who also use e-cigarettes are no more likely to quit smoking after a year, compared with smokers who don’t use the devices.

Researchers at the University of California, San Francisco, studied 949 smokers, 88 of whom also used e-cigarettes, Reuters reports. Those who used e-cigarettes didn’t smoke fewer regular cigarettes after one year, compared with those not using the devices, the researchers reported in JAMA Internal Medicine.

“Our data add to the current evidence that e-cigarettes may not increase rates of smoking cessation,” the researchers wrote. “Regulations should prohibit advertising claiming or suggesting that e-cigarettes are effective smoking cessation devices until claims are supported by scientific evidence.”

A study published last year by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found one-fifth of U.S. adult smokers have tried e-cigarettes. The percentage of smokers who tried the battery-powered devices jumped to 21 percent in 2011, from about 10 percent the previous year.