Dual Use, Can You Smoke While Vaping?

Top scientists have discovered that even those people who continue to smoke while vaping experience health benefits too, It’s called dual-use.

The truth about smoking is an accepted fact – it kills. For over a decade, the truth about vaping has developed through (mainly British) independent studies. From a position of scepticism, all of the public health bodies in the United Kingdom now support electronic cigarettes as a method to quit smoking. The only question remaining was whether partially switching was a benefit, and this has been answered by the latest study.

What is partial switching?

Partial switching, also known as “dual-use”, is when a smoker doesn’t stop smoking when initiating vaping. A dual user will use an electronic cigarette where smoking is banned or in place of a tobacco cigarette for other reasons.

What are the arguments against partial switching?

The majority of those opposed to dual-use do so because of selected research from one university in the United States. Those pieces of sponsored work all use statistical manipulation of data to show that dual users smoke more and place themselves at greater health risks.

This is not the case and is not accepted by UK health bodies.

What do public health organisations in the UK say?

While supportive of fully switching to vaping, the current position is that only fully switching delivers health benefits. No organisation supports partial switching at the moment.

But there has been a study on Dual-Use!

Yes. Researchers at The University of Kansas Cancer Centre, California State University San Marcos and Brown University looked at whether dual users experience benefits over continuing to smoke full-time.

How did they do it?

Unlike the negative studies that only look at sets of data, the research team followed real people across a six-week randomised control trial.

The programme lead, Dr Nikki Nollen said: “Fourth generation e-cigarettes contain high concentrations of nicotine and other appealing features that may support switching and reduce potential health risks among those who smoke combustible cigarettes. We wanted to examine the biomarkers of exposure in both groups and determine the risk-benefit tradeoff of e-cigarettes.”

What did they discover?

Without any coercion, at the end of the six-week period, almost a third of the people in the group with access to electronic cigarettes had quit smoking and become full-time vapers. Considering none of them planned to quit this is an outstanding figure.

57.9%, almost two thirds, had become dual users.

When they followed up with the participants after six months, they found the numbers were holding firm, demonstrating the worth of vaping.

Did they measure a reduction in harm?

Absolutely. The research team looked for the presence of tobacco-specific carcinogens, the ones causing cancer and death in smokers.

People who fully switched to vaping “demonstrated significant reductions” in those tobacco-specific carcinogens. They also reported improvements in their respiratory symptoms.

But in partial switchers?

Dual users “also experienced significant reductions” in tobacco-specific carcinogens. They also reported significant improvements in their respiratory symptoms.

Conclusion: What does this all mean?

All too often smokers beat themselves up that they aren’t being successful in switching to vaping. Here, for the first time, is evidence that partially switching delivers health benefits. If future studies confirm the findings then public health bodies will shortly have to change their advice.

Here at E-Liquids UK, we believe that even just cutting out the pointless cigarettes in your day is the first big step toward a healthier smoke-free lifestyle. In recent years Disposable Vape Pens have become extremely popular due to their vast range of flavours and simplicity. These little devices could be perfect for anyone who isn’t quite ready to fully quit smoking but wants to cut down the amount they are smoking.