Notes

This book gives general information about an everyday habit. It isn't medical advice and it's no substitute for a GP, a pharmacist, a midwife or a stop smoking adviser who knows you. The NHS guidance I mention is for England as I found it in September 2026. Vaping law in the UK is changing, and the NHS page notes that disposable vapes can no longer be sold. Nothing here recommends a device or a product.

I've kept sources out of the chapters where I could so they read easily. Here they are by chapter, with the limits I'm aware of. Unless I say otherwise, I read the published summary of each paper and not the full text. I checked each paper for a retraction or correction notice in September 2026 and found none. Where a chapter isn't listed, it rests on my own reasoning. That includes chapters 7, 8, 9, 15 apart from the NHS lines, 16, 19 and 22. The desk, the car, the bedside table and the colleague are invented.

Before you start. The lines on under-eighteens, pregnancy and only stopping if you're confident you can do it without smoking are from the NHS pages "Vaping to quit smoking" and "How to quit vaping". The two-week guide for low mood is from the NHS pages on depression.

Chapter 1. Graham, Amato, Cha, Jacobs, Bottcher and Papandonatos, "Effectiveness of a vaping cessation text message program among young adult e-cigarette users: a randomized clinical trial", JAMA Internal Medicine 181, 2021, pages 923 to 930. Of 2,588 American vapers aged eighteen to twenty-four, 82.3 per cent vaped within thirty minutes of waking. The count exercise is mine.

Chapter 2. The NHS "Vaping to quit smoking" page, for less harmful, roughly twice as likely to quit as with other nicotine replacement, about a third of the cost, and the 2022 UK review's phrase "a small fraction of the risks of smoking".

Chapter 3. Hajek, Pittaccio, Pesola, Myers Smith, Phillips-Waller and Przulj, "Nicotine delivery and users' reactions to Juul compared with cigarettes and other e-cigarette products", Addiction 115, 2020, pages 1141 to 1148. Twenty people who both smoked and vaped, five minutes of use after overnight abstinence, the American version of the product at 59 milligrams per millilitre, which is above the UK limit. The argument about the ending is mine.

Chapter 4. Benowitz, Hukkanen and Jacob, "Nicotine chemistry, metabolism, kinetics and biomarkers", Handbook of Experimental Pharmacology 192, 2009, pages 29 to 60. I read the full text of this one for an earlier book in the series. Hughes, "Effects of abstinence from tobacco: valid symptoms and time course", Nicotine and Tobacco Research 9, 2007, pages 315 to 327, a review based on the author's judgement of 120 papers, about tobacco and not vapes. Parrott, "Does cigarette smoking cause stress?", American Psychologist 54, 1999, pages 817 to 820. Three comments were published in October 2000, followed by Parrott's reply. I didn't read the comments, and the chapter says only that parts were disputed. The extension from cigarettes to vapes, and the hundred small falls, are mine.

Chapter 5. Hughes as above. The NHS "How to quit vaping" page, for the list of what to expect. The forty-minute test and what I expect it to show are mine.

Chapter 6. Dawkins, Kimber, Doig, Feyerabend and Corcoran, "Self-titration by experienced e-cigarette users: blood nicotine delivery and subjective effects", Psychopharmacology 233, 2016, pages 2933 to 2941. Eleven experienced male vapers, one hour at 6 and one hour at 24 milligrams per millilitre, in a laboratory.

Chapter 7. The NHS "Vaping to quit smoking" page, for using the vape as much as needed when switching and for aiming to stop eventually. The reading of that as advice for the switch and not a permanent licence is mine.

Chapter 9. The NHS "Vaping to quit smoking" page, for the hand-to-mouth action and throat hit, and "How to quit vaping" for keeping your hands busy. The zero-strength test is mine and I know of no study of it.

Chapter 10. The NHS "Vaping to quit smoking" page, for everything in the chapter, including the side effects and the advice to get help before stopping over them.

Chapters 11 and 12. The NHS "How to quit vaping" page, for only stopping when confident, for relapse advice, and for the mouth spray and patch. The NHS "Vaping to quit smoking" page, for patches alongside a vape. The distinction between a vape you use and a vape you carry is mine.

Chapter 13. Benowitz and colleagues as above, for the half-life and overnight persistence. Hughes as above, for insomnia. The NHS "How to quit vaping" page, for difficulty sleeping. The reading of the three o'clock draw is mine.

Chapter 14. The NHS "Vaping to quit smoking" page, for non-smokers and under-eighteens.

Chapter 15. Parrott as above. The NHS "Vaping to quit smoking" page, for cost and for not vaping around children.

Chapter 17. The NHS "How to quit vaping" page, for lowering the strength, vaping more meaning you've cut too fast, stretching twenty minutes to forty, vape-free spaces, and walking as a distraction. Dawkins and colleagues as above. Hughes as above. The rest of the method is mine.

Chapter 18. The NHS "How to quit vaping" page, for the one-step advice, the mouth spray and patch, and pharmacists and advisers. Butler, Lindson, Livingstone-Banks, Notley, Turner and Rigotti, "Interventions for quitting vaping", Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews 2025, issue 11, CD016058. Fifteen trials, 5,800 participants, fourteen in the United States. Varenicline, risk ratio 2.71, low certainty. Text programmes for thirteen to twenty-four year olds, risk ratio 1.32, low certainty. Combination nicotine replacement, risk ratio 0.96 with a wide interval, very low certainty. It's a living review and the figures may have changed by the time you read this. Graham and colleagues as above, 24.1 against 18.6 per cent thirty-day abstinence at seven months.

Chapter 19. Gollwitzer and Sheeran, "Implementation intentions and goal achievement: a meta-analysis of effects and processes", Advances in Experimental Social Psychology 38, 2006, pages 69 to 119. The rule hasn't been tested as a package, and what I say to expect is my expectation and not a finding.

Chapter 20. The NHS "Vaping to quit smoking" page, for dual use, pregnancy, liquorice flavours, side effects, and the parents' page on young people and vaping. Hughes as above, for low mood. The NHS pages on depression as above.

Chapter 21. The NHS "How to quit vaping" page, for going back to a vape being much better than smoking. The rest is mine.