Tobacco control groups have for long suggested that effective strategies should be found to end tobacco use once and for all. However, it has been hard to agree on a single strategy that can deliver the desired outcomes quickly. Scientists have now developed a model that projects what would happen in case smokers switched to vaping over a 10-year duration. Don’t rush to dismiss their findings as mere guesswork. The study or model used statistics from numerous government departments in the US regarding the rates at which people take up smoking, the quit rates, the rates of those who never quit smoking and those whose life ends due to smoking-related conditions.
The outcomes paint a detailed picture of how much harm or death would be prevented if the optimistic projection is real, and what would happen if the worse-case scenario occurs regarding switching to vaping. Both scenarios show that millions of lives would still be saved and people would have a better quality of life when you consider the public health implications of switching to vaping (fewer hospitalizations due to secondhand smoke, for example). The study is worth reading if you are concerned about the policy direction that e-cig and tobacco regulation is taking.