Vapes could be of more use in helping pregnant women to quit smoking than patches, new research shows.
Refillable e-cigarettes were more effective in helping would-be mums to quit smoking than nicotine patches, while fewer mums gave birth to under-weight babies than those using patches.
The surprising results of the study, done by Australian and British scientists with 1,140 pregnant smokers, was released a day after the NSW chief health officer Kerry Chant declared a war on illegal e-cigarettes.
E-cigarettes might help pregnant women to quit smoking, and their safety during pregnancy is similar to that of nicotine patches,’ said a joint statement from the National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre (NDARC) on behalf of the University of New South Wales and Queen Mary University of London.
The study’s authors made it clear the research didn’t mean vapes are not safe for pregnant women – just marginally safer and more effective in getting them to quit.
‘[NSW Health is] cracking down on the illegal sale of nicotine e-cigarettes and liquids and taking a zero-tolerance approach to those who sell them,’ Ms Chant said on Monday.
Retailers were put on notice and warned they will be punished with heavy fines or jail time if they breach regulation.
‘You will be caught, illegal items will be seized, and you could face prosecution, resulting in being fined or even jailed,’ Dr Chant said.
More than $3million worth of illegal vapes and vaping products have been seized in a series of raids since July 1, 2020.
Individuals face an $11,000 penalty for the first offence and a $55,000 fine for the second while corporations will be forced to pay $55,000 the first time and $110,000 the second.
Dr Chant said too many young people were not aware of the true nature of vapes and simply believed they were ‘flavoured water’.
She said they actually contained chemicals that were so poisonous they could inflict life-threatening injuries on the smoker.
The study of pregnant women followed 569 who used vapes to try and quit and 571 who tried using patches.
Their average ages were 27 and both groups smoked the equivalent of 10 cigarettes a day in the trial.
The research did not promote the use of vapes, or find that they were good for pregnant women – just that they were marginally more useful in helping women to quit than patches.
Of those using vapes 6.8 per cent had quit by the time they gave birth but only 4.4 per cent of those on patches had stopped.
Research elsewhere also supports patches being of questionable value in helping people to permanently stop smoking.
The study’s authors acknowledged ‘smoking in pregnancy increases the risk of adverse birth outcomes such as low birthweight, placental abruption, pre-term birth, miscarriage and neonatal or sudden infant death’.