Tobacco industry is investing in e-cigarette types least likely to help smokers quit

Smokers are more likely to try to quit tobacco cigarettes if they also use electronic cigarettes, but they are more likely to succeed if they are daily users of “tank” devices, which are designed to be refilled with “e-liquid” rather than a cartridge, researchers from King’s College and University College London have found.

The most prominent brands of e-cigarettes in the United Kingdom are either disposable or those that use refillable cartridges. These brands are owned by the tobacco industry, which has bought up several early popular e-cigarette brands as well as developing their own products. In contrast, “tank” devices, which enable the user to vary the flavour of e-liquid and the strength of the vapour, have been developed and marketed by small specialist companies.

The two studies, published on 21 April in Addiction and Nicotine and Tobacco Research, were based on a survey of smoking behaviour of more than 1500 UK smokers, who were surveyed first in December 2012 and then one year later in December 2013. …