Latest research in the UK: Promoting e-cigarettes can effectively reduce the smoking rate among the population

According to Reuters on December 6th, Tadeu Marroco, CEO of British American Tobacco (BAT), stated that BAT has suffered significant losses in selling its Russian and Belarusian assets.
You are still struggling with whether to replace cigarettes with e-cigarettes, as some countries have already benefited from promoting e-cigarettes. The latest study supported by the National Institute of Health and Nursing (NIHR) in the UK indicates that smoking rates in countries such as the UK and Sweden that openly recognize e-cigarettes are continuously decreasing, and e-cigarettes have not had any adverse effects on them to date.
Why does promoting e-cigarettes reduce smoking rates? The official website of the World Health Organization describes smoking cessation as "Quitting tobacco", which means quitting tobacco because nicotine is not carcinogenic, and the true harm of cigarettes comes from the over 4000 chemicals produced by tobacco combustion. Electronic cigarettes do not contain the tobacco burning process, which can reduce the harm of cigarettes by 95% and significantly improve the success rate of smokers in quitting smoking. Therefore, some countries will promote electronic cigarettes to reduce their smoking rate (number of cigarette users/total number of people * 100%).
Taking the UK as an example, the UK government has been promoting scientific knowledge on reducing the harm of e-cigarettes on its official website for many years, and launched the world's first "switch to e-cigarettes before quitting smoking" plan in 2023, distributing e-cigarettes free of charge to 1 million British smokers. But there are also countries that have biases against e-cigarettes, fearing that e-cigarettes will become the first cigarette for non-smokers, deliberately exaggerating the harm of the product, and even banning e-cigarettes.
The study, led by Queen Mary University in London, compared the variation curves of smoking rates in different countries and found that in countries promoting e-cigarettes, e-cigarettes not only did not produce a portal effect, but also helped promote the tobacco control industry. Data shows that the proportion of Swedish e-cigarette users increased from 7% in 2015 to 12% in 2020, and the smoking rate decreased from 11.4% in 2012 to 5.6% in 2022.
At the same time, in order to control smoking, Australia has put e-cigarettes in the form of prescription drugs for sale in pharmacies, resulting in a much slower decline in both cigarette sales and smoking rates compared to the UK. "Many people are concerned that e-cigarettes may induce non-smokers to smoke, and now we have confirmed that this concern is unnecessary," said Peter Hajek, a clinical psychology professor at Queen Mary University in London.
As a globally renowned expert in tobacco control, Peter Hajek came to the conclusion of his research on e-cigarettes as early as 2014: e-cigarettes only provide nicotine and do not release over 60 carcinogens like cigarettes, and their health effects are basically the same as coffee.
More and more studies have repeatedly confirmed the harmful effects of electronic cigarettes in recent years. According to the "Report on User Characteristics and Public Health Impact of Chinese e-cigarettes (2023)" released by the research team of the School of Public Health at Shanghai Jiao Tong University in September 2023, nearly 70% of smokers reported that their overall physical health has improved after switching to e-cigarettes.
The UK quit smoking service has pointed out that e-cigarettes have become the most popular way for British smokers to quit smoking, with a success rate of up to 74% using e-cigarettes. "The success rate of smokers' smoking cessation is increasing with the popularity of e-cigarettes. We believe that older smokers who cannot find effective ways to quit will benefit from e-cigarettes," said Peter Hajek.