{"id":16930,"date":"2024-04-03T09:46:41","date_gmt":"2024-04-03T09:46:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/giving-out-free-vapes-in-a-e-could-help-thousands-of-smokers-quit-report-shows\/"},"modified":"2025-01-06T16:37:36","modified_gmt":"2025-01-06T16:37:36","slug":"giving-out-free-vapes-in-a-e-could-help-thousands-of-smokers-quit-report-shows","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/fr\/post\/giving-out-free-vapes-in-a-e-could-help-thousands-of-smokers-quit-report-shows\/","title":{"rendered":"Giving out free vapes in A&E \u2018could help thousands of smokers quit,\u2019 report shows"},"content":{"rendered":"

Giving out free vapes to smokers in A&E could help thousands more people quit each year, a new report shows. <\/strong><\/p>\n

The approach could be helpful to people who are less likely to engage with official NHS stop smoking services in the UK but \u201chave the most to gain from stopping smoking\u201d, researchers said.<\/p>\n

The study was carried out between January and August two years ago in six emergency departments across the UK. The team from the University of East Anglia (UEA) offered 484 daily smokers brief advice from a dedicated adviser while at hospital, along with an e-cigarette starter kit, and a referral to stop smoking services.<\/p>\n

A second group of 488 patients were given written information on how to access stop smoking services, but were not referred directly.<\/p>\n

Smoking habits of the patients were then assessed six months later.<\/p>\n

Researchers asked members of the study to perform a carbon monoxide test to confirm they had given up cigarettes. They found that those referred to services and offered vape kits were 76 per cent more likely to have given up compared to the other group.<\/p>\n

In total 7.2 per cent of the vape kit group quit smoking compared to 4.1 per cent of the other group.<\/p>\n

They were also more likely to attempt to quit overall, according to the study.<\/p>\n

Hazel Cheeseman, deputy chief executive of public health charity Action on Smoking and Health, said that the findings \u00ab\u00a0are compelling\u00a0\u00bb and should be \u00ab\u00a0carefully considered by those in the NHS and local government who are planning services for smokers\u00a0\u00bb.<\/p>\n

Self-reported seven-day abstinence from smoking at six months was a little over 23 per cent in the group offered more advice and vapes compared to 13 per cent in the group simply signposted to services.<\/p>\n

Dr Ian Pope, of UEA\u2019s Norwich Medical School said that providing smoking cessation support in A&Es should be considered to \u201creach groups of the population that may not routinely engage with stop smoking services but have the most to gain from stopping smoking\u201d.<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cSwapping to e-cigarettes could save thousands of lives.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe believe that if this intervention was widely implemented it could result in more than 22,000 extra people quitting smoking each year.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Office for National Statistics figures show about 6.4 million adults in the UK were smokers in 2022.<\/p>\n

According to the NHS, smoking costs England about \u00a317 billion a year due to health service costs, loss of earnings, unemployment and early death.<\/p>\n

Dr Pope said: \u201cAttending the emergency department offers a valuable opportunity for people to be supported to quit smoking, which will improve their chances of recovery from whatever has brought them to hospital, and also prevent future illness.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trial co-lead Professor Caitlin Notley, also of UEA\u2019s Norwich Medical School, said vapes can \u201cbe an attractive option\u201d to help people stop smoking.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know that they are much less harmful than smoking tobacco, and that they have been shown to help smokers quit,\u201d she added.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

About half of all people who smoke will die prematurely, losing on average 10 years of life, and for every death caused by smoking, approximately 30 more people are suffering from a smoking-related disease.<\/p>\n

It’s not the first time vapes have been suggested for Britain’s hospitals. In 2018, Public Health England recommended that hospitals should sell e-cigarettes<\/a> and provide patients with vaping lounges.<\/p>\n

The new report follows Rishi Sunak’s announcement of plans to ban disposable vapes<\/a> in a bid to crack down on their use among children.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Giving out free vapes to smokers in A&E could help thousands more people quit each year, a new report shows.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":990002,"featured_media":14410,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[267,270],"tags":[],"slider":[],"class_list":["post-16930","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16930","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/990002"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16930"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16930\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17886,"href":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16930\/revisions\/17886"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14410"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16930"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16930"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16930"},{"taxonomy":"slider","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clearingtheair.eu\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/slider?post=16930"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}