Council Offers Vapes To Help Smokers Quit

The increasing acceptance of vaping as a practical means of helping smokers to stop has taken another step forward after a council in the north of England announced it is to offer e-cigarettes as an alternative.

Kirklees Council in West Yorkshire is offering over-18s the vapes in an initiative run through its Wellness service, in partnership with Yorkshire Cancer Research and Auntie Pam’s Service, a charty that aims to stop pregnant women and new mums from smoking, the Examiner Live reports.

The Kirklees Wellness Service published an article featuring the testimony of a former smoker who found that vaping products provided by the organisation proved an effective way to stop lighting up, something they had felt compelled to do through peer pressure when going to the pub with fellow smokers.

Speaking of their experience, the individual said: “I am now six weeks cigarette free and have been to the pub with my friends every weekend since.”

The fact that vapes can help people enjoy the social aspect of being in an environment with smokers while not actually involving the smoking of a cigarette with all its harmful chemicals is a key advantage they offer over the cold turkey of simple abstinence.

Indeed, there is good evidence that those going to a vape store in the UK to find alternatives to cigarettes will find this works.

Last month, researchers at the Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center in Buffalo, New York, published a study showing that even people who had no plans to stop smoking were much more likely to do so if they used vapes.

Lead researcher Karin Kasza said this group had “eightfold higher odds of quitting smoking when they took up daily vaping”.

Dr Andrew Hyland, chair of health behaviour at Roswell Park, said this finding about vapes is “paradigm-shifting”, because it shows they can overcome even a firm determination to carry on smoking.