More than half of vapers quit tobacco – an update

I wrote about the pros and cons of vaping a few months ago but now there’s more news, some good and some bad.

According to the public health charity, Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) around 50% of electronic-cigarette users have given up tobacco, meaning for the first time, vapers who no longer smoke outnumber those who still do.

The findings were “encouraging”, said Ann McNeill, professor of tobacco addiction at King’s College London.

However, the same report also found a quarter of respondents believed vaping was as harmful as, or more harmful, than tobacco despite Public Health England’s conclusion that e-cigarettes are 95% less harmful than traditional cigarettes.

ASH chief executive, Deborah Arnott said such inaccurate fears had slowed the rapid growth in the use of e-cigarettes.

Praising the “excellent” news that so many vapers had kicked tobacco, she also warned that more than a third of the UK’s nine million smokers had never tried e-cigarettes, with most citing health fears as their reason for resisting.

“It’s very important smokers realise that vaping is much, much less harmful than smoking,” she said.