A new study comparing the UK, US, and Australia, where sales of e-cigarettes containing nicotine are banned, found that there is no sign that e-cigarettes promote smoking and that there is evidence these products compete against smoking and may speed up the demise of smoking.
Conducted by the the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR), the study compared the time course of use and sales of e-cigarettes with that of smoking rates and cigarette sales in countries with similar smoking trajectories, but differing current e-cigarette regulations. It also looked at the use of other smoking and nicotine alternatives popular in other countries, such as oral nicotine in Sweden and heat-not-burn (HNB) devices in Japan and South Korea.
Study findings revealed that the number of smokers in Australia has decreased more slowly than in the UK, and slower than both the UK and US among young people. Cigarette sales in Australia have also declined slower than in the UK. Cigarette sales in Japan decreased along with the increase in HNB sales.
Researchers point out that longer time periods are required to assess any effects of exclusive use of the new products on smoking prevalence because people may use both cigarettes and alternative products, causing figures for these items to overlap.