Renowned Australian GP and anti-smoking researcher, highlights once again that given the relative safety of vapes, switching from smoking to vaping is the most effective way to quit smoking.

Dr. Colin Mendelsohn even wrote a book on the topic: Stop Smoking Start Vaping: The Healthy Truth About Vaping, and is also taking up the matter with caner councils in Australia. “In its 2021 report, the UK Royal College of Physicians concluded ‘e-cigarettes are an effective treatment for tobacco dependency and their use should be included and encouraged in all treatment pathways’. And this is something all Australian cancer councils should consider,” he said.

“Vaping is available at a time when, worldwide, there have been 100 million smoking related deaths over the last 15 years. “Switching from smoking to vaping dramatically reduces your risk of cancer. The cancer risk from vaping nicotine has been estimated to be more than 200 times less than the cancer risk from smoking,” added Mendelsohn.

Alecia Brooks, from NSW’s Cancer Council NSW, has recently said that the council does not recommend the use of e-cigarettes for smoking cessation because the evidence on the matter is inconclusive. Responding to this, Mendelsohn said that this is actually not the case. “But this is incorrect,” said Mendelsohn. “There’s growing evidence that vaping helps many smokers to quit. A Cochrane review, recognised internationally as the highest standard in evidence- -based studies in health care, was published in September 2021, showing vaping is 53 per cent more powerful as a smoking cessation therapy than nicotine replacement therapy.”

Read the full text here