Electronic cigarettes: a survey of users
Little is known about users of electronic cigarettes, or their opinions, satisfaction or how and why they use such products.
Methods: An internet survey of 81 ever-users of e cigarettes in 2009. Participants answered open-ended questions on use of, and opinions about, e cigarettes.
Results: Respondents (73 current and 8 former users) lived in France, Canada, Belgium or Switzerland.
Most respondents (77%) were men; 63% were former smokers and 37% were current smokers. They had used e-cigarettes for 100 days (median) and drew 175 puffs per day (median).
Participants used the e cigarette either to quit smoking (53 comments), to reduce their cigarette consumption (14 comments), in order not to disturb other people with smoke (20 comments), or in smoke-free places (21 comments). Positive effects reported with e cigarettes included their usefulness to quit smoking, and the benefits of abstinence from smoking (less coughing, improved breathing, better physical fitness).
Respondents also enjoyed the flavour of e cigarettes and the sensation of inhalation. Side effects included dryness of the mouth and throat.
Respondents complained about the frequent technical failures of e-cigarettes and had some concerns about the possible toxicity of the devices and about their future legal status.
Conclusions: E cigarettes were used mainly to quit smoking, and may be helpful for this purpose, but several respondents were concerned about potential toxicity. There are very few published studies on e cigarettes and research is urgently required, particularly on the efficacy and toxicity of these devices.
Author: Jean-Francois Etter
Credits/Source: BMC Public Health 2010, 10:231
Published on: 2010-05-04
Copyright by the authors listed above - made available via BioMedCentral (Open Access). Please
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