Running to quit smoking

Jennifer Jeaurond had tried everything to kick her 23-year tobacco habit: hypnotherapy, the nicotine patch, a craving-reduction medication and even electronic cigarettes.

Nothing worked.

That is until she signed up in 2013 for a 10-week smoking-cessation course in Ottawa, organized as a pilot study by the Canadian Cancer Society and the sporting goods retailer, the Running Room.

Read more: Thestar.com

E-cigarettes Don't Help Smokers Quit Tobacco: Study

Electronic cigarettes are promoted as a way to help smokers kick the habit, but a new study contends that the devices hamper rather than help.

E-cigarette use actually lowers smokers' chances that they'll quit tobacco by about 28 percent, according to an evidence review published online Jan. 14 in The Lancet Respiratory Medicine journal.

"We found that e-cigarette use was associated with significantly less quitting," said study senior author Stanton Glantz, a professor with the University of California, San Francisco's Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education. "E-cigarettes are being promoted as a means of quitting, but they're actually having the opposite effect."

Electronic cigarettes are battery-powered devices that heat nicotine and flavorings to create a vapor that is inhaled by the user.

Read more: Health.usnews.com

E-cigarettes WON'T help you quit: Smokers using vapers are '28% less likely to ditch traditional cigarettes'

E-cigarettes do not help smokers to quit tobacco, a major study has concluded.

Researchers found that people who use ‘vaping’ gadgets are in fact 28 per cent less likely to give up smoking traditional cigarettes.

The findings are a major blow to leading health officials in England, who have repeatedly insisted that e-cigarettes are a key tool to reduce smoking rates.

The study - a systematic review of all available data on the issue - is the largest to assess whether e-cigarettes assist smokers in quitting cigarettes.

Published in the Lancet Respiratory Medicine journal, it concluded that e-cigarettes do not help smokers quit - and should not be recommended for the purpose until there is solid proof that they do.

Read more: Dailymail.co.uk

Call to hike taxes further to stub out smoking labelled 'ludicrous'

A Palmerston North tobacconist believes that if the Government were to heed calls to hike prices again, the market would be driven further underground and more people might grow their own.

Health advocates and smoking cessation groups are calling for the Government to continue with its annual price hikes for cigarettes, but want the tax increases to go from 10 per cent to 20 per cent annually.

With the goal of achieving a smokefree Aotearoa by 2025, the groups do not believe what the Government has done so far is enough. The programme of tax increases finished this year.

Since annual tobacco tax increases took effect in 2013, the number of cigarettes sold in New Zealand has fallen by 23 per cent, and the proportion of the population smoking regularly has fallen to a record low of under 17 per cent.

Buttbucket owner Richard Green said the proposed increases in tax was "ludicrous", because people would keep smoking and would find other avenues to satisfy addictions.

Read more: Stuff.co.nz

Trying To Quit Smoking? Don’t Count On E-Cigarettes To Make That Happen

WWJ Health Reporter Dr. Deanna Lites has details of a new study.

Electronic cigarettes or E-cigs are not helping smokers quit says University of California – San Francisco researcher Stanton Glantz.

Glantz says while e-cigs are marketed as a way to quit smoking, there is no evidence they do.

“We reviewed the entire scientific literature and found that not only were these cigarettes not helping smokers quit but smokers who used these cigarettes were about a third less likely to quit smoking than smokers who didn’t use them,” says Glantz.

No e-cigarette company has submitted an application to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to approve e-cigarettes for smoking cessation.

Read more: Detroit.cbslocal.com

New Jersey May Be Second State to Raise Smoking Age to 21

New Jersey could become the second state to raise the smoking age to 21, as part of a movement that's been spurred in part by a major study released last year and a sharp increase in electronic cigarette use among young people.

The state's Legislature on Monday passed a bill that would fine retailers up to $1,000 if they sell cigarettes or other tobacco products, including e-cigarettes that are often called "vapes," to anyone 20 years old or younger. The law wouldn't punish underage smokers.

It's unclear whether Gov. Chris Christie will sign it into law. He has until Jan. 19 to decide, and a spokesman declined to comment Tuesday on the governor's intentions. In 2014, the Republican presidential candidate vetoed a bill that passed with overwhelming support to extend a smoking ban to parks and public beaches, saying local municipalities should be able to decide.

Read more: NBCNewYork.com

Study: E-cigarettes don't help smokers quit

Electronic cigarettes are widely marketed as a way to help smokers quit traditional cigarettes, but a large new analysis finds they may actually have the opposite effect.

In fact, the report, published online today in The Lancet Respiratory Medicine, found that adult smokers who use e-cigarettes are actually 28 percent less likely to stop smoking cigarettes.

The question has been studied numerous times in the past, yielding sometimes conflicting results. But the new study -- systematic review and meta-analysis of published data -- is the largest to date.

"As currently being used, e-cigarettes are associated with significantly less quitting among smokers," wrote first author Dr. Sara Kalkhoran, who was a clinical fellow at the UCSF School of Medicine when the research was conducted. "E-cigarettes should not be recommended as effective smoking cessation aids until there is evidence that, as promoted and used, they assist smoking cessation." Kalkhoran is now at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School.

Read more: Cbsnews.com