Patterns of Use Research
Research looks at patterns of cigarette smoking and e-cigarette use among frequent American vapers.
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by Dave Cross
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The pair carried out a survey of over 22,000 vapers in the United States, funded by Fontem Ventures, and looked at a wide range of topics. Subjects covered included what the individual’s routes into vaping was, “the possible impact of vaping on smoking, the types of e-cigarettes individuals were using, the role of flavours in enabling vapers to distance themselves from the smoking experience, and the extent to which vapers’ reported being dependent upon vaping.”
They discovered that three out of four vapers began vaping while still cigarette smokers and have gone on to quit their smoking habit entirely. One out of ten current vapers classed themselves as ex-smokers before taking up vaping – but they the use of electronic cigarettes has helped prevent a slide back into smoking and they still think of themselves as non-smokers.
One in twenty smokers are still smoking after having taken up vaping. So, while many on the East Coast might tout the notion that vaping doesn’t work as a cessation tool, it clearly does for most smokers.
The pair noted that when compared to previous studies, the volume of smokers turning to vaping has increased for those with a lighter tobacco habit, so it appears that a safer way of using nicotine is gaining appeal. This is born out by statements from respondents: “they believed e-cigarettes would be less harmful to their health than continuing to smoke.”
As a successful intervention tool, “Adult smokers who became frequent e-cigarette users have reduced their daily cigarette consumption by around 3/4 of a pack of 20 cigarettes per day, on average.”
Russell and McKeganey observed that the rechargeable and refillable device is taking over from the disposable cigalike in popularity and now accounts for 80% of ecig use.
When smoking, vapers began their journey by using fruit, fruit beverage, and dessert or pastry juices. More experienced vapers tend to augmented that range with sweets/candy/chocolate flavours too. Strange that adults should like these flavours? Some people would have us believe that they only exist to rope unsuspecting children into nicotine addiction.
Sixty percent of users vape with juices ranging from 1 to 6mg in strength, using a 0.1 to 0.4Ω coil, and use less than 60ml of juice a week. The volume of juice used drops dramatically as people use higher resistance coils.
The most telling finding, important given the size of the survey sample, was: “The vast majority of sampled frequent e-cigarette users, regardless of smoking history, have become less interested in smoking cigarettes since they started using e-cigarettes frequently.”
The full survey can be downloaded and read here: http://substanceuseresearch.org/us-study/
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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