The Secret To Properly Supporting Vaping Is Easier Than You Think

Article from ChurnMag.com
The Secret To Properly Supporting Vaping Is Easier Than You Think - ChurnMag

A vaping company based in Ireland is launching their own smoking cessation campaign to coincide with the UK’s Stoptober

With a scant decade under its belt, vaping is still very new to the world, and even newer to the majority of the public. Globally there have been many different reactions to the tool, from full-on bans on one end to full acceptance and support on the other. Vaping has increasingly proven itself to be a valuable tool. Scientific studies have found it to be useful for both harm reduction and smoking cessation. It’s even more effective when paired with existing smoking cessation programs or social support like group discussions. The places that are genuinely utilizing vaping, by accepting them socially and as a part of smoking cessation programs, are the same places that are finding the most success in the fight against tobacco.

Swaptober

This October an Irish vape company, VIP E-Cigs, has started a campaign to help smokers in Ireland quit. They are calling it ‘Swaptober’ and it encourages smokers to swap cigarettes for vaporizers, also giving them the chance to help support each other through social media. By sharing their stories and struggles with the hashtags #Swaptober and #GetYourLifeBack, quitting smokers can help support each other in the first, and hardest, month of their quit attempt.

VIP E-cig Ireland’s managing director, Joe Dunne, spoke on the campaign saying “Ireland has reached a turning point in terms of our relationship with tobacco, but the battle is not over.” In Ireland 22% of adults are smokers, and there are over 5,000 deaths per year in the tiny country that stem from tobacco use alone.

Dunne continued saying “Quitting smoking alone is a very hard thing to do, and relapses are more common than we would like – but if you can quit a habit as harmful and as addictive as smoking at the exact same time as many others… then that is definitely something worth considering.”

Stoptober

The campaign is similar, in name and premise, to Great Britain’s ‘Stoptober’ campaign. One of the most significant differences is that Stoptober is a government lead program that encourages their citizens to quit smoking. Last year Great Britain’s National Health Service, who runs the campaign, incorporated e-cigarettes into the program for the first time. While they were not officially endorsed before this, Public Health England had researched e-cigs and famously found them 95% safer than combustible cigarettes. Their incorporation proved a massive success, with record-breaking numbers among those quitting thanks to help from vapes.

Since then, the government has officially endorsed vaping as a safe and viable smoking cessation tool. This year they will continue to encourage smokers to utilize the devices for smoking cessation. Great Britain has set the goal of being tobacco-free by 2040, but with more programs like these, experts say they are in line to reach it much sooner.

Implications

These stances on vaping, acceptance and support, are proving to be some of the most effective in the world in the fight against tobacco. As mentioned earlier, PHE found vaping to be at least 95% safer than smoking, and many other scientific studies have supported that. A team at the University of Louisville found that when stacked up against other cessation tools, like nicotine gums and prescriptions, vaping was the most effective at helping people effectively quit smoking. They also found it was more effective when paired with group discussion and support, which is precisely what Swaptober is advocating for. Programs like these genuinely help people quit smoking for good. Hopefully, other countries around the world will take note and follow suit, bringing their own cessation programs to the next level with vaporizers.