As the number of smokers drops, the remaining smokers actually smoke less and are more likely to quit, according to a study published in the journal Tobacco Control.

The study results suggest that current tobacco control policies already in place are working, partly owing to the clean indoor air legislation, media campaigns that aimed to de-normalize smoking and raised cigarette taxes. It supports the idea that smoking in the United States is heading down a “softening” curve. That means more people are trying to quit, and the number of people quitting compared to smokers is increasing as the number of total smokers declines.

In Europe, the researchers found, things are slightly different. The percentage of smokers who have quit remained constant even as fewer people smoked, while the number of cigarettes smoked per day dropped, as it has in U.S.

Enter “harm reduction”, a way to minimize the exposure of smokers unable or unwilling to quit.  E-cigarettes are part of this policy. People used to believe that nicotine kept people addicted to cigarettes but that it wasn’t dangerous itself. The smoke was thought to be the source of harmful toxins. So the idea was to introduce new ways to deliver nicotine such as e-cigarettes that could give people the nicotine they desired but didn’t involve burning tobacco.  This is the idea behind  e-cigarettes as a replacement for the traditional cigarette.

Now we know better. The 2014 U.S. Surgeon General’s report nicotine is addictive, that a high-enough dosage can be toxic in a short amount of time, and that exposure to nicotine during pregnancy and childhood can have serious adverse consequences. E-cigarettes deliver nicotine and other chemicals to users, but in vapor instead of smoke.
(Based on a Copyright article on the NPR website, 2015)

Exit E- cigarettes? If you subscribe to Epicurean beliefs you might say that if using e-cigarettes makes you happy and relaxed, whose business is it other than your own? On the other hand, smoking these things is apparently extremely bad for those around you who inhale the vapour, sends you to an early grave and is a big burden on public health services. Which side are you on? Ban them, or just let the market decide?