E-cigarettes do not help smokers quit: experts

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2019/10/16
By: Emerson Lim

Taipei, Oct. 16 (CNA) Taiwanese medical experts said Wednesday that e-cigarettes do little to help

smokers quit and instead encourage people to smoke tobacco cigarettes.

In fact, e-cigarette users are almost four times more likely than non-users to become smokers, said Lai Chih-kuan (賴志冠), attending physician in the Department of Family Medicine at Taipei Veterans General Hospital, citing data from the U.S. National Institute on Drug Abuse.

"Among American teenagers, 30.7 percent of e-cigarette users started smoking within six months, while only 8.1 percent of non-e-cigarette users became smokers," Lai said at a press conference held by Taiwan's Science Media Center.

It is a phenomenon related to the Gateway theory, which is also known as the stepping-stone theory, he said.    [FULL  STORY]