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UKECRF roundup

The monthly research roundup from the UK E-Cigarette Research Forum highlighting the volume of vape related studies

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The UK E-Cigarette Research Forum (UKECRF) is an initiative developed by Cancer Research UK in partnership with Public Health England (PHE) and the UK Centre for Tobacco and Alcohol Studies (UKCTAS). Among other things, it brings together genuine experts to look at research related to vaping and tobacco harm reduction.

The UKECRF [link] provides monthly updates aiming giving an overview of new vape. They are aimed at researchers, policy makers, health professionals and anyone else with an interest in tobacco harm reduction. The authors point out that the studies they present are but a snapshot of all the papers published over the last month.

Effect of Pod e-Cigarettes vs Cigarettes on Carcinogen Exposure Among African American and Latinx Smokers: A Randomized Clinical Trial [link]

American researchers looked at the harm reduction potential of vaping vs combustible cigarettes. They concluded that ecigs “may be an inclusive harm reduction strategy for African American and Latinx smokers”.

Moreover, smokers who completely switched to vaping Juul pods experienced greater reductions in blood pressure and improved lung function compared to dual users.

UKECRF pointed out that as the research subjects, “received a financial reward for attending follow-ups. Therefore, the outcomes may not be generalisable to a real-life situation,” and, “the sample consisted mainly of ‘light smokers’, whose average cigarette consumption was lower than the general population. Therefore, the results may not be generalisable to heavier smokers.”

Socio-economic distribution of e-cigarette use among recent former regular smokers and current smokers at ages 25-26 in England [link]

University College London’s Thierry Gagné and Jamie Brown considered how vaping can potentially help young adult smokers to quit smoking from a socio-economic perspective. They concluded: “Among young adult smokers in England, lower-status occupational groups were more likely to use e-cigarettes on a non-daily basis than to have never used compared with higher status occupational groups. Compared with people in full-time employment, those without employment were less likely to use e-cigarettes daily than to have never used.”

UKECRF commented: “Since data collection in 2015-2016, the tobacco products directive (TPD) has been implemented, new e-cigarette devices have become available, and other tobacco control efforts have been introduced. Therefore, the results may not be reflective of the current environment.”

Nicotine delivery and user reactions to Juul EU (20 mg/ml) compared with Juul US (59 mg/ml), cigarettes and other e-cigarette products [link]

The team’s objective was to “compare the pharmacokinetic profile and user ratings of Juul EU, Juul US, cigarettes and other e-cigarette products.” The Queen Mary University quintet included Peter Hajek – the man behind the ground-breaking gold standard efficacy study showing vaping is twice as good as NRT.

The findings raised the issue of the 20mg/ml limit currently in place in the UK, concluding: “Juul EU delivers much less nicotine to users than Juul US. It may thus have more limited potential to help smokers quit.”

UKECRF believes longer term follow-up studies are required to determine if the effects are sustained over time or in participants who solely use e-cigarettes. It also contended that as the work only focussed on tobacco flavour products, other flavours may have changed the outcome or had an impact on the participants rating section.

The full roundup for January can be found here.

Other studies:

Patterns of use

Perception 

Cessation

Youth

Harms and harm reduction

Marketing

Misc

 

Dave Cross avatar

Dave Cross

Journalist at POTV
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Dave 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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