Three million vaping

The number of vapers in Great Britain has topped three million for the first time and is now four times what it was in 2012, according to a story at bbc.co.uk citing the results of a survey by Action on Smoking and Health (Ash).
Most vapers use electronic cigarettes because they have quit smoking, while 40 percent are smokers who are trying to give up.
Ash said the survey of 12,000 British adults suggested smokers were getting the message that switching to vaping could improve their health.
But about a third of smokers had never tried a vaping device and, while increasing numbers of smokers now believed vaping was less harmful than smoking, 22 percent still thought it was as bad or worse.
Among the general public, one in four adults believes vaping is as harmful as smoking.
The survey found that 17 percent of the survey’s participants correctly believed vaping was a lot less harmful than smoking – but 23 percent said they didn’t know which was more harmful. These figures compare with 13 percent and 29 percent last year.
“UK policy is on the right track, with thousands of smokers making the switch to vaping and improving their health, and little sign of non-smokers taking up vaping,” Deborah Arnott, chief executive of Ash, was quoted as saying.
“But even more smokers could benefit if e-cigarettes were licensed as medicines and available on prescription.”
Meanwhile, Alison Cook, director of policy at the British Lung Foundation, said it was really encouraging to see smokers using e-cigarettes to help them quit the much more harmful practice of smoking.
Doctors and pharmacists “should be very clear with people that there is a range of products available and that they can try vaping as a way to stop smoking,” she added.
The top three reasons ex-smokers gave for using e-cigarettes were:

• to quit smoking (62 percent);
• because they enjoyed it (11 percent);
• to save money (10 percent).