JUUL Evidence Renders Attacks Toothless
Research by a Scottish-based company finds that most JUUL users are vaping in order to quit smoking
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by Dave Cross
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People were invited to participate in this study through email invitations and inserts in JUUL starter kits. The research was conducted in the United States where there has been vitriolic opposition to tobacco harm reduction and vaping.
All of those taking part were adults who had smoked at least 100 cigarettes in their lifetime, and had purchased their a JUUL starter kit from one of the legitimate sellers or online from JUUL.
The study examined past 30-day smoking abstinence rates three months after initial JUUL product purchase among a sample of 15,456 adult smokers aged 21+ years.
Abstinence was defined as zero use of a combustible tobacco cigarette ‘over the past 30 days’. Results presented that 47.1 % of the 9,272 survey participants who completed the 3-month follow-up assessment had completely abstained from smoking for the prior 30 days.
Overall, 28.3% of all 15,456 participants who began the study abstained from smoking during the reporting period – both of these demonstrate a far higher level of success than the use of nicotine replacement products.
The researchers also discovered that non-tobacco flavour pods (Mango, Cucumber, Fruit, Creme, Menthol, and Mint) resulted in the quit rate increasing by 30% over tobacco flavours – something that flies in the face of proposed flavour bans.
Drilling down, mint users were 37% more likely to abstain from smoking, and mango users were 26% more likely.
Christopher Russell, lead author and psychologist working with Scottish research company CSUR, said: "For people who use the Juul, it satisfies them, the convenience suits them, they like the flavours. It's great to see them finally find something that competes with cigarettes and ultimately replaces cigarettes."
Dr. Neil McKeganey added: “The results of this study indicate that close to half of adult smokers who used a JUUL product for three months had abstained from smoking for the past 30 days, with even higher rates of abstinence observed among those who primarily used JUULpods in non-tobacco flavours.”
“Although additional follow-up research is needed, flavoured JUULpods have been shown to have a significant impact in getting smokers to switch and ultimately abstain from cigarettes over a period of time. We will continue to track this and other variables impacting smokers' likelihood of abstaining from cigarette use, including collecting additional survey data at both the 6 and 12-months mark after initiating JUUL use.”
In the UK, JUUL products have been listed and rolled out for sale in the Boots pharmacy chain.
Resources:
- “Factors associated with past 30-day abstinence from cigarette smoking in a non-probabilistic sample of 15,456 adult established current smokers in the United States who used JUUL vapor products for three months” by Russell, Haseen and McKeganey - https://bit.ly/2FUVvmo
Dave Cross
Journalist at POTVDave is a freelance writer; with articles on music, motorbikes, football, pop-science, vaping and tobacco harm reduction in Sounds, Melody Maker, UBG, AWoL, Bike, When Saturday Comes, Vape News Magazine, and syndicated across the Johnston Press group. He was published in an anthology of “Greatest Football Writing”, but still believes this was a mistake. Dave contributes sketches to comedy shows and used to co-host a radio sketch show. He’s worked with numerous start-ups to develop content for their websites.
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