Why e-ciggies are so 'cool' revealed

Researchers have taken a look into the popularity of e-cigarettes.

Michael Steinberg of the Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School in the USA, leader of a pilot study about the perception and use of these nicotine delivery devices, said that was in their marketing - they are simply "cooler" than nicotine inhalers.

Steinberg's team conducted a crossover trial during which 38 current smokers from New Jersey tried out the e-cigarette and the nicotine inhaler over a period of three days each. The participants rated the e-cigarette to be more acceptable and "cool," and judged it to be more helpful and effective in the process of trying to quit smoking. The e-cigarette also provided superior satisfaction and physical reward compared to the inhaler, and was even on par with the participants' own tobacco cigarettes.

Seventy-six percent of the participants said they would indeed use an e-cigarette to help them quit. Eighteen percent (seven of the 38 participants) did not smoke at all during the three-day test period using the e-cigarette, while only 10 percent (four participants) refrained while using the inhaler.

The study has been published in the Journal of General Internal Medicine.