Cigarette smoking remains the leading cause of preventable death and disease in the United States. Over 2/3 of those adults who smoke want to quit and more than half try to do so in any given year; but only 1 in 10 will be successful. Nicotine e-cigarettes were designed to help people to stop smoking cigarettes but their use for withdrawing from regular cigarettes has been controversial, as some argue it perpetuated the nicotine addiction that cigarettes induce and with its own set of toxins. And an additional concern has been that youth, in particular, may be taking up e-cigarettes and quickly get addicted to nicotine. JAMA, the official publication of the AMA, just published evidence-based recommendations about the use of e-cigarettes from a working group within the Treatment Research Network of the International Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco on July 30th. In that same issue of JAMA, Dr. Jamie Hartmann-Boyce, DPhil, Associate Professor in Health Policy and Management at University of Massachusetts Amherst, wrote an editorial about the recommendations on the use of e-cigarettes for smoking cessation. HealthCetera Producer and Host, Diana Mason, PhD, RN, talked with Dr. Hartman-Boyce about e-cigarettes, their use for smoking cessation, and the evidence on whether people should be concerned about using e-cigarettes, including teens. This interview first aired on WIOX Radio on August 12, 2026.
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