More Brits vaping but more taken in by health scares

The number of vapers in Britain has risen by 500,000 recently, according to a Press Association story citing figures from Action on Smoking and Health (ASH).

ASH was quoted as saying that there were now 2.6 million vapers in Britain, up from 2.1 million in 2014, with nearly all of this increase attributable to a rise in the number of ex-smokers using electronic cigarettes.

The campaign group said the figures showed the ‘value’ of electronic cigarettes in helping smokers give up tobacco.

But it warned of a ‘worrying’ increase in people falsely believing that electronic cigarettes were as harmful as or even more dangerous than traditional tobacco cigarettes.

Twenty two percent of people were said to believe that electronic cigarettes were as harmful as or even more dangerous than traditional tobacco cigarettes, up from 15 percent last year.

ASH said analysis by researchers at King’s College London had shown that electronic cigarette use had increased among ex-smokers from 4.5 percent in 2014 to 6.7 percent in 2015, but remained the same among current smokers at 17.6 percent.

Vaping remains rare amongst people who have never smoked, with just 0.2 percent of users falling into this category during the past three years.