Vaping on the advance

The UK Vaping Industry Association (UKVIA) has said that it is delighted with the results of a survey showing that more than half of Great Britain’s 2.9 million vapers no longer smoke.

Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) has today published the findings from its annual Smokefree GB survey into the use of electronic cigarettes and vaporisers in Great Britain, a survey that is conducted by YouGov on behalf of ASH.

The survey data show that an estimated 2.9 million adults in Great Britain currently use electronic cigarettes and that, for the first time, more ex-smokers (1.5 million) than current smokers are using e-cigarettes.

“We are delighted that ASH and YouGov have confirmed that the British people are voting with their feet and switching from smoking to significantly less harmful vaping products,” said Doug Mutter of the UKVIA in a press note.

“Public Health England is clear that vaping is at least 95 percent less harmful than smoking.

“If we can now convince the UK’s nine million remaining smokers to switch to vaping, this will produce huge benefits for our nation’s health and the NHS’ [National Health Service’s] finances.

“Unfortunately, the public are still receiving a barrage of mixed messages about vaping. This, coupled with excessive tobacco-style regulation coming from the EU, puts at risk the seismic public health prize that vaping represents.

“It is time for the government to seize the public health opportunity on offer, and the chance presented by Brexit, to finally address one of our society’s most intransigent public health problems – smoking related diseases.”