This is great news! It’s a major gain for public health in general.
ASH (Action on Smoking and Health) claim that the amount smokers who also use electronic cigarettes has increased dramatically since 2010 (that’s roughly when e-cigs were introduced to the general public)
ASH estimates that there are currently 2.6 million adults in Great Britain using electronic cigarettes. Of these, approximately 1.1 million are ex-smokers while 1.4 million continue to use tobacco alongside their electronic cigarette use. Regular use of the devices is confined to current and ex-smokers and use amongst never smokers remains negligible.
Awareness of electronic cigarettes is widespread among adults. The 2015 survey found that 95% of smokers and 93% of non-smokers had heard of electronic cigarettes.
Between 2010 and 2014 there was a rise in the number of current smokers who also use electronic cigarettes, from 2.7% in 2010 to 17.6% in 2014.
The increase in the numbers of people using electronic cigarettes between 2014 and 2015 came almost entirely from ex-smokers. The proportion of ex-smokers using electronic cigarettes rose from 4.5% in 2014 to 6.7% in 2015.
Smokers and ex-smokers give a number of reasons for using, or having tried electronic cigarettes. Among those who no longer use electronic cigarettes nearly half (45%) say they used them ‘just to give it a try’.
Among current vapers, the principal reasons given by ex-smokers are “to help me stop smoking entirely” (61%) and “to help me keep off tobacco” (53%). The principal reasons given by current vapers who still smoking are to “to help me reduce the amount of tobacco I smoke, but not stop completely” (43%) and “help me stop smoking entirely” (41%).
Among this good news there are still a few people claiming the electronic cigarettes are glamourizing smoking and encouraging people to use them or indeed to smoke. However, the numbers beg to differ, with no noticeable increase in ‘never-smokers’ using e-cigs at all.
The numbers also show that in children under 18 years old, even though more of them are aware of electronic cigarettes and know what they are, the amount using them hasn’t risen by any real margin except among those who currently smoke.
As you can see, we’ve come a long way in the last few years. Many more people now know about electronic cigarettes and their benefits over smoking traditional cigarettes.
With new legislation passed recently which prohibits the sale and advertising of electronic cigarettes and accompanying products to under 18s we’re likely to see the naysayers quiet down pretty quickly, and with the new evidence of vaping being much safer than smoking we’re likely to see an increase in the amount of people switching for good.
Hopefully this information will guide any future legislation when it comes to electronic cigarettes, and we can have guidelines in place to ensure that vapers can get what they want out of vaping in the safest and best way possible.
Thank you all for choosing TABlites to join you on your vaping journey, and we look forward to great, safe vaping together in the future.
If you want to read ASH’s information yourself you can find two PDFs here:
https://www.ash.org.uk/files/documents/ASH_959.pdf
https://www.ash.org.uk/files/documents/ASH_891.pdf
When did you start vaping?
Why did you switch?