A big Australian research project has found electronic cigarettes can help smokers to give up.

There has been a lot of debate over whether e-cigarettes are an effective cessation tool - like nicotine patches or gum - or if they are as bad as traditional cigarettes.

A joint project by Australian Catholic University (ACU) and the University of Melbourne has reviewed a number of recent studies on e-cigarettes, involving 7,552 adult smokers.

They found that among 1,242 smokers, 224 (18 per cent) reported that they gave up smoking by using e-cigarettes for a minimum period of six months.

The researchers found that nicotine filled e-cigarettes – which are illegal to sell in Australia - are more effective for cessation than those without nicotine.

They also showed that the use of e-cigarettes helps smokers cut back on the number of cigarettes that they smoke.

Research leader Dr Aziz Rahman said the review provided the most comprehensive evidence to date on e-cigarettes, and offered important information for regulatory authorities, policymakers, and public health researchers.

“E-cigarettes are becoming an increasingly popular method of giving up smoking, especially for middle-aged smokers,” Dr Rahman said.

“As cigarettes contain more than 4,000 toxic chemicals and cancer causing agents, e-cigarettes are a better choice, in terms of a harm reduction strategy.

“However, we still do not know their long term health effects.”

E-cigarettes work by heating up a mix of vegetable glycerine, propylene glycol, nicotine and food flavourings to around 240°C, a temperature at which vapour is produced, but much before the required temperature for combustion.

It would be extraordinarily difficult for the vapour of an e-cigarette to have anywhere near the level of harmful chemicals found in cigarette smoke, but long-term studies on the effects of vapourised flavourings in particular mean their safety is not certain yet.

Dr Rahman said it was now critical to support more rigorous large-scale research to test the safety of e-cigarettes and to test their effectiveness against other proven smoking cessation methods such as nicotine replacement therapies.

“We are not in favour of the normalisation of smoking by new technology and we do not support the initiation of e-cigarette use among non-smokers,” he said.

“However, our research does add evidence to the current regulatory debate and offers hope to those who wish to give up or cut down on smoking.”

The research has been published in the PLoS One journal, and is accessible here.