News Release

Users believe electronic cigarettes can help you quit

Peer-Reviewed Publication

BMC (BioMed Central)

Electronic cigarettes, or 'E-cigarettes', are used mainly to quit smoking, and may be useful for this purpose. Researchers writing in the open access journal BMC Public Health polled 81 users and former users of the devices, finding that although the majority was happy with them, several concerns remain unaddressed.

Jean-François Etter, from the University of Geneva, Switzerland, carried out the research. He said, "Currently, there is a difficult balance between the need to protect consumers and the possibility now being offered to smokers to use a new, acceptable and potentially effective device to stop smoking. Given the enormous burden of disease and death caused by tobacco smoking, there is an urgent need for research into the toxicity, efficacy and public health impact of e-cigarettes".

Almost all of the respondents (95%) had found e-cigarettes at least somewhat helpful to stop smoking. However, users were concerned about potential toxicity. Poor quality, lack of reliability and frequent failures were also mentioned by several of the people surveyed. Summarizing the responses, Etter said, "Although users' comments were generally positive, many were concerned about safety and toxicity, and questioned why no study has yet investigated these aspects. Several respondents were also concerned about the future legal status of e-cigarettes, and that they may possibly be banned. Very few studies have investigated these devices and research is now urgently required".

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Notes to Editors

1. Electronic cigarettes: a survey of users
Jean-Francois Etter
BMC Public Health (in press)

During embargo, article available here: http://www.biomedcentral.com/imedia/1440477701319135_article.pdf?random=19859

After the embargo, article available at the journal website: http://www.biomedcentral.com/bmcpublichealth/

Please name the journal in any story you write. If you are writing for the web, please link to the article. All articles are available free of charge, according to BioMed Central's open access policy.

Article citation and URL available on request at press@biomedcentral.com on the day of publication.

2. BMC Public Health is an open access journal publishing original peer-reviewed research articles in the epidemiology of disease and the understanding of all aspects of public health. The journal has a special focus on the social determinants of health, the environmental, behavioral, and occupational correlates of health and disease, and the impact of health policies, practices and interventions on the community. BMC Public Health (ISSN 1471-2458) is indexed/tracked/covered by PubMed, MEDLINE, CAS, EMBASE, Scopus, Current Contents, FSTA, CABI, Thomson Reuters (ISI) and Google Scholar.

3. BioMed Central (http://www.biomedcentral.com/) is an STM (Science, Technology and Medicine) publisher which has pioneered the open access publishing model. All peer-reviewed research articles published by BioMed Central are made immediately and freely accessible online, and are licensed to allow redistribution and reuse. BioMed Central is part of Springer Science+Business Media, a leading global publisher in the STM sector.


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