Home > Are electronic cigarettes good for tobacco control in Ireland?

Babineau, Kate and Keogan, Sheila and Clancy, Luke (2014) Are electronic cigarettes good for tobacco control in Ireland? In: Institute of Public Health Open Conference, 14 October 2014, Belfast.

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The role of e-cigarettes in Tobacco Control (TC) is uncertain. Some Smoking Cessation (SC) practitioners believe that these devices can be an important extension to the treatment armamentarium, others are unsure and await definitive evidence. However in the broader TC community there are other worries.

SC is only one TC intervention and not at all the most effective. Even if e-cigarettes were effective as another variety of nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) would this justify their widespread promotion and usage? What effect would they have on the huge success that Smokefree has been? Would they essentially re-normalize smoking? Would they discourage some smokers from stopping?

As well as these considerations there is the possible effect on initiation of smoking among teenagers.
To address this we surveyed a representative sample of 823 students aged 16-17 were recruited from secondary schools across Ireland and surveyed on e-cigarette use, tobacco use, and socio-demographic items.

A total of 23.8% of respondents had used e-cigarettes at least once. Regular use of e-cigarettes was low (2.1%) but dual use was common with 77.4% of regular smokers and 32.2% of ever-smokers having tried e-cigarettes. 4.2% of non-smokers have also tried e-cigarettes. Logistic regression determined that young people attending socioeconomically disadvantaged schools were more likely to have used e-cigarettes (OR=1.73, 95% CI: 1.08-2.78, p=.02) as were regular (OR=72.24, 95% CI: 37.28-139.97, p<.001) and ever-tobacco smokers (OR=12.05, 95% CI: 6.96-20.89, p<.001).

We feel these are worrying results and add to the anxieties about e-cigarette usage in Ireland


Item Type
Conference or Workshop Item
Publication Type
Irish-related, Report
Drug Type
Tobacco / Nicotine
Intervention Type
Harm reduction, Policy
Date
14 October 2014
Event Title
Institute of Public Health Open Conference
Event Location
Belfast
Event Dates
14 October 2014
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