EDITORIAL: Cancer Council SA has produced a study that it claims shows e-cigarettes do not help smokers quit their deadly habits.

But the cancer lobby’s methodology leaves much to be desired.

The study was based on data from Quitline callers during an eight-month period.

Clearly, it is not useful to use people who have not quit (and so are calling Quitline) as the basis for a study on the efficacy of a quitting technique.

The data pool was pretty small too – containing just 36 people using e-cigarettes, 36 clients who had used them before, and 15 who had never tried the devices.

Additionally, many of the e-cigarette users used devices that did not contain nicotine – which is difficult to obtain in Australia, though not entirely illegal.

Cancer Council SA manager of tobacco control Lauren Maksimovic said a majority of the e-cigarette users reported that the devices did not help reduce or remove their cravings.

This is an understandable result given that they were craving nicotine, and many were not getting it from the e-cigarettes.

“A majority of the people reported that they were using them to try to quit attempts,” she told the ABC.

“They were also using them to replace the hand to mouth action... and what we found was that didn't help them to quit smoking.

“A lot of people in our study found that it was too similar to smoking, they were using that hand to mouth action but it actually enhanced their smoking.

“It was just the same thing they were continuing to smoke.”

Ms Maksimovic said the Cancer Council was concerned about potential risks from the devices, and there was no evidence that they reduced smoking.

But the Cancer Council's concern is somewhat confusing, as no studies show a link between e-cigarettes and cancer.

It may be useful for Cancer Council SA to look at objective studies with data pools of thousands of people – like this one that suggests the perception of risk around e-cigarettes increases the likelihood that a user will continue smoking.

Or this one, which surveyed nearly 6,000 smokers to find about 20 per cent of those who quit did so using e-cigarettes. 

Given the lack of valid studies showing risks from e-cigarettes anywhere near the level of risk from smoking tobacco, the Cancer Council may be better off taking a more positive line. 

Until it is revealed that e-cigarettes cause cancer, surely a group dedicated to fighting cancer should look upon them more favourably.

Instead they panic and condemn what could be a useful tool in their arsenal. 

Their research will be presented at the 2015 Oceania Tobacco Control Conference in Perth.