ACSH staffers were excited with the overwhelming response we received over the weekend via e-mail and Twitter to our question asking readers whether they or someone they know used electronic cigarettes as an effective method to successfully quit smoking.
Numerous people wrote in testimonials describing how, thanks to e-cigs, they have kicked their cigarette habits for good:
I have been using e-cigarettes for 13 months. I smoked 2 packs a day for 35 years. I only bought my first e-cig to try it, but quickly learned that I liked it better than a regular cigarette and switched almost instantly. —Janet Andersen
Though gladdened by the news, ACSH's Jeff Stier was careful to note that “just because we have a number of positive responses, this doesn’t take the place of a scientific study to prove whether e-cigs are more effective overall.”
Stier believes that we can think of smoking as a risk continuum on which cigarettes would lie at one end of the spectrum as the most risky, and e-cigs would lie at the opposite end as the least risky since they are “far far safer than cigarettes.” He adds, “If the FDA succeeds in hampering access to e-cigs, then people will regress slightly back across the risk continuum to other substances such as snus — which are not believed to be as safe as e-cigs — or worse yet, some users will revert back to smoking real cigarettes, as they have already stated in emails to ACSH.”
If you have an e-cigarette story you’d like to share with us, email [email protected] or Tweet @JeffACSH.
