Three million Britons have quit smoking with the help of e-cigarettes in the last five years. This is according to the Action on Smoking and Health organisation's latest report on vejpning and the use of e-cigarettes in the UK.
Action on Smoking and Health has been collecting data on vejping regularly since 2010 and summarises the results annually in a report. This year's statistics are based on data from 13266 Britons who took part in the survey in 2023 and 2024.
Few non-smokers start vejpa
According to the report, the proportion of vejp users is higher than ever before in the UK. A total of 11%, or 5.6 million people, use e-cigarettes regularly and of these, just over half, 53%, have completely stopped smoking cigarettes. 8 per cent of vejps said they are former non-smokers.
"The report shows that vejping among adults has increased over the past year and that the main reasons were to quit, reduce or to abstain from smoking. Quitting smoking is the best thing a smoker can do for their health and the latest ASH report shows the role e-cigarettes can play in this journey." says the addiction researcher Katherine East, of King's College London, who reviewed the report.
Want to reduce smoking with vapes
According to the target set by the previous UK government, smoking in the UK should be below five per cent by 2030. Hazel Cheeseman is Deputy Chief Executive of ASH UK. And she believes that e-cigarettes are necessary to achieve that goal. Currently, almost 12 per cent of the population smokes, a figure that is certainly falling, but not fast enough, she says
One of the problems is that almost half of all smokers believe that vejping is as or even more dangerous than smoking. This is where the government needs to do a better job of informing citizens, especially smokers, says Hazel Cheeseman
"The government needs to reinforce the message that vejping is less harmful than smoking. At the same time, it must emphasise that it is not risk-free and should only be used as a smoking cessation aid." says Hazel Cheeseman.
