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Hi everyone,

I hope you are all well and safe!

Many thanks to everyone who replied to my questionnaire which was active on the discussion forum from September 2019 to February 2020.

I apologise for not getting back in touch sooner – things have been a bit hectic at work and in other areas of life during the lockdowns and my research has often suffered. Unfortunately I am not quite where I want to be with analysing the data from this questionnaire. That said, I have recently done some analysis of the written responses and I am preparing a first paper submission. I have outlined some of the key themes that I identified below.

If anyone would like any further details, or wants to discuss further, please do get in touch (m.lucherini@keele.ac.uk). Hopefully I’ll have more detailed analysis soon!

Responses overview
The questionnaire received a total of 182 responses from a number of different discussion forums. Respondents’ average age was 49 years old. 78% of respondents were male. Most respondents came from the UK (120), with the second most coming from the USA (31). Smaller numbers of respondents lived in other countries spanning most continents. Most respondents were ex-smokers (75%) with most noted that they had quit smoking with the help of e-cigarettes (74%).

E-cigarettes and emotion
One question asked participants directly about the emotions felt when considering e-cigarettes. The respondents overwhelmingly mentioned a sense of satisfaction, under which I included mentions of relief, pleasure, contentment, happiness. Fewer respondents touched on anger, frustration and worry in response to the possibility of restrictions and regulations being placed on e-cigarettes. Many respondents also indicated that e-cigarettes had deeper impacts on their lives than just helping them stop smoking. Although other products and methods can also help people stop smoking, the strength of positive feeling towards e-cigarettes was significant given that many respondents noted that they had quit smoking using e-cigarettes after trying many or most other options with limited success.

Among some tobacco researchers e-cigarettes are often treated as the latest in a long line of products claiming to help people quit smoking. Research focusses on the efficacy of e-cigarettes for smoking cessation and so e-cigarettes can be treated with a lot of caution, over fears of re-normalising smoking, or acting as a gateway into smoking. However, these findings suggest many vapers have a much different perspective of e-cigarettes and vaping. So many of the responses to the question touched on how e-cigarettes had opened up and extended their lives in various ways. From more time spent with family, more time spent on leisure activities, better health, saving money etc. In general e-cigarettes seemed to create much more positive and optimistic everyday lives for people than were possible when smoking. I am arguing that it is this significance of e-cigarettes in people’s lives that can often be underappreciated by other stakeholders, like researchers or policy-makers.