Dual Use of Vapes and Cigarettes—Harmful or Harm Reduction?

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Can You See Bogart Vaping? –

June 26, 2019 – A 2018 Journal of American Medical Association study utilizing past PATH data suggests that high concentrations of toxicants in dual users could be a function of cigarette smoking frequency. Out of 982 dual users in that study, 82 percent reported daily cigarette smoking, which was shown to be positively correlated with the presence of chemicals like NNK. The reasons for this phenomenon remain unclear. The JAMA study states that “Further investigation can identify contributing factors resulting in higher toxicant concentrations among dual users.”

“The most likely explanation is that e-cigarette use is a marker for people who are more intensive smokers and have found it harder to quit,” Clive Bates, a leading tobacco harm reduction advocate and former director of Action on Smoking and Health in the UK, told Filter. He identifies this as “selection bias,” through which the category of exclusive vapers “will be depleting the smoker population of less dependent smokers, leaving the more dependent as dual users.”