Most of the participants also said that in the morning they wait longer to vape then they did to smoke, and they tended to reduce nicotine levels over time. “Most of the participants had changed the type of vaporiser they used several times. There was also a pattern of moving away from tobacco flavoured e-liquids, experimenting with many different flavours until they found several they liked and then continued to use on an ongoing basis.” said Truman.
Vaping is less addictive than smoking
The researchers had been filtering the responses given, by looking for regular smokers and vapers, which left them with a total of 3,586 participants. Five percent of these were vapers, while the remaining 95% were smokers. From the 5% e-cigarette users, 93% were ex-smokers, while the other 7% only experimented with cigarettes.
NZ dragging its feet to legalize e-cigs
The researchers from the new NZ survey, who included renowned Massey public health Professor Marewa Glover and former director of Action on Smoking and Health (Ash) Trish Fraser, pointed out that the results indicate the importance of making vaping products available to smokers.
Last March, associate Health Minister Nicky Wagner had said that e-cigarettes would be legalized and that New Zealand was adopting a low risk approach since scientific evidence about the the safety of e-cigarettes is still being developed. However, almost a year later, no formal action has been taken to initiate the legalization process.
