THE VAPERS WHO'VE NEVER SMOKED
There are now 200,000 vapers who were never smokers, making up an increasing proportion of e-cigarette users
VAPING is proving increasingly popular with people who have never smoked.
That is according to new research from Action on Smoking and Health, which revealed that one in every 16 e-cigarette users this year had never smoked before.
That works out as 6.1% of vapers - up from 4.2% the year before and the highest proportion since the study began in 2014.
That year, 1.9% of vapers had never smoked before.
Of the 3.6 million current vapers, just under two million are ex-smokers, 1.4 million are current smokers and 200,000 are people who’ve never smoked.
The proportion of vapers who are ex-smokers hit a record high of 54.1% in 2019, while the proportion of current smokers fell to a record low of 39.8%.
That suggests vaping might indeed be helping smokers to put away the cigarettes for good.
Research has shown that e-cigarettes are nearly twice as successful in helping smokers quit as traditional nicotine replacement therapy when used with behavioural support in smoking cessation clinics.
Six in every 10 vapers agreed that health was the number one reason for taking up e-cigarettes, and more than half agreed they’d improved their quality of life. The survey also asked current smokers why they’ve not yet tried e-cigarettes.
Some 16% said they’d not done so because they didn’t want to substitute one addiction for another making it the most common reason.
That was followed by the 12% of people who said they weren’t addicted to smoking and therefore didn’t need help to quit. Among other reasons, 9% of respondents expressed concerns that vapes were not safe enough.
Ann McNeill, Professor of Tobacco Addiction at King’s College London, and lead author of the independent evidence reviews of e-cigarettes for Public Health England, said: “It’s
important that all vapers stop smoking completely, as otherwise they are still exposing themselves to the serious risks of disease and disability caused by smoking.
“Vaping isn’t risk free, but it’s much less risky than smoking, which kills nearly 100,000 people a year in the UK.”
A recent report from the Medical and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency revealed that 200 health problems across the UK have been linked to use of the devices over the past five years.
In September, UK doctors linked the country’s first death to vaping - a 57-yearold man from Tyne and Wear.
A post-mortem report said: “It was thought that he may have developed lipoid pneumonia from the inhalation of oil-blended concentrated nicotine from the device.”
The inquest into his death recorded an open verdict.