This isn't the first study warning that e-cigarettes may not as effective at stopping smoking as proponents have said. Earlier this month, a study in JAMA Pediatrics also from UCSF researchers concluded that e-cigarettes may be a "gateway" to smoking real cigarettes for middle and high school students, based on increasing rates gleaned from surveys conducted in 2011 and 2012 on separate groups of students.That study was met with criticisms from experts who said the study authors may have had "an axe to grind" and that the study's conclusions were too broad.Unlike that study, this research followed the same participants for a year, but the new research was met with similar criticisms over its limitations.
"We need solid data that's based on solid science before we make decisions," Dr. Michael Siegel, a munity health researcher at the Boston University School of Public Health who was not involved with the study, told Reuters Health. The study didn't look at why the smokers used e-cigarettes,
Detractors say they are a means to make smoking socially acceptable again or how long they used them. "I hope no one would take this research letter and make any conclusion based on it," he said."This study has problems," Dr. Uncertainties over health effects from e-cigarettes have led to bans on using the products in public places in major cities including Los Angeles, Chicago and New York.A fair amount of conversation about e-cigarettes has involved their use in purportedly helping people to quit smoking. Researchers on Monday said the evidence for that has been "unconvincing," and they suggest that regulations should forbid such claims until there's supporting research.
In a letter Monday in the Journal of the American Medical Assn. Internal Medicine, researchers from the Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education and the Department of Medicine at UC San Francisco noted that e-cigarettes are "aggressively promoted as smoking cessation aids."Electronic cigarettes, or e-cigarettes, are battery operated; they heat substances that usually include nicotine to deliver a vapor for inhalation that often also contains flavors fruit, bubble gum and others. Unlike conventional cigarettes, there's no tar or carbon monoxide. It's estimated to be a $2-billion business.