Study Finds Most Greek Vapers Are Ex-Smokers

>

A Greek study released recently agrees with what vapor advocates have been saying for years - most people who vape are former smokers who have quit using vapor products as a cessation tool. This serves as a timely counterpoint to increased concern in the media and elsewhere that vapor products are primarily a gateway to increased cigarette use.

In fact, according to this survey, over 60 percent of vapers are former smokers, while only 0.2 percent of the population who'd never smoked were current vapers. Research here was directed by renowned anti-smoking advocate Dr. Konstantinos E. Farsalinos, who has for years conducted some of the most important and influential vapor studies in the industry.

While the findings indicate a potentially beneficial influence from vapor products on smokers in the country, vapers in Greece just took a hit in the political arena when a court ruled that vapor and combustible cigarettes should be treated the same in the eyes of the law, according to a report by EURATIV. .   

Dr. Farsalinos

Farsalinos has long been a medical and scientific champion for the benefits of vapor products as a cessation method. He maintains a popular blog about e-cigarettes and has been known to throw his voice into discussions to counter prevalent myths that tend to surface in media reporting.

In the last year alone, Dr. Farsalinos has written about a number of experiments that have countered some of these misconceptions associated with vapor products. In August 2017 and again in February, he reviewed various studies that looked toxins in secondhand vapor and found that fears of dangerous toxins in vapor were widely overstated.   

Study

In this study, titled Electronic Cigarette Use in Greece, researchers conducted a cross-sectional survey of a sample of 4058 adults via telephone interviews. The results indicate that former smokers formed a majority of vapers and only 0.2 percent of never smokers were current vapers. Among those and those who had ever tried e-cigarettes, 54.1% were found to be current smokers, 24.1% were ex-smokers, and 6.5% had never smoked.

The results here are promising in that, while some non-smokers appear to have experimented with vaping, the target population (smokers trying to quit using combustible tobacco products) seems to be the only group likely to stick with it.

“E-cigarette use in Greece is largely confined to current or former smokers, while current use and nicotine use by never smokers is extremely rare. The majority of current e-cigarette users were former smokers. Most participants overestimate the harmfulness of e-cigarettes relative to smoking,” reads an excerpt of the study’s conclusion

If these results are representative of populations in other countries, that's good news for the vapor industry. But given the political inclinations of Greece, that's probably little comfort for local vapers.