E-cigarettes not as addictive as tobacco counterparts

A leading US health expert has said that electronic cigarettes do not seem to be anywhere close to tobacco cigarettes in respect of their potential to cause addiction.

Writing on his Rest of the Story blog, Dr Siegel, a Professor in the Department of Community Health Sciences, Boston University School of Public Health, said that electronic cigarettes were probably much closer to nicotine gums, which were not particularly addictive.

Siegel was commenting on a new study published in the journal Drug and Alcohol Dependence (Etter JF, Eissenberg T. Dependence levels in users of electronic cigarettes, nicotine gums, and tobacco cigarettes. Drug and Alcohol Dependence 2015; 147:68-75.)

The primary reason for electronic cigarettes’ lower addictive potential is thought to be down to their ‘inferior’ nicotine delivery system, compared with that of tobacco cigarettes, a phenomenon that Eissenberg demonstrated in a previous study.

‘While use of electronic cigarettes by youth remains an important concern, it does not appear that there is major potential for huge numbers of youth to become quickly addicted to these products, despite the fact that they contain nicotine,’ said Siegel.

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