Record Numbers of Adults Vaping

A man exhaling whilst using a vaping product on Feb. 21, 2020. (PA)

The proportion of adults in the UK who use e-cigarettes is at its highest level, according to new figures, with many ex-cigarette smokers now hooked on vapes.

The percentage of smokers who are using vapes at times as well as continuing to smoke cigarettes has also nearly doubled in the past three years, while former tobacco smokers who turn to e-cigarettes to quit are using them for longer, the research revealed.

The Smokefree GB analysis, conducted by Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) and based on data collected by YouGov for the public health charity, estimates 11 percent of the adult population in Britain currently vapes regularly, which equates to around 5.6 million people and is the highest rate ever.

Around 53 percent or three million of those who use vapes are former tobacco smokers, the research found.

Among all former smokers—including those who still vape and those who have stopped vaping—the median length of time spent using e-cigarettes is two years.

‘Not Risk Free’

A majority of experts say that vaping is less harmful than smoking cigarettes but is “not risk free” and should be used only as an aid to quit.

Propylene glycol and vegetable glycerin make up approximately 90 percent of the e-liquid in vape, with the fluids helping to carry the flavours, nicotine, and other chemicals.

The proportion of smokers who currently vape increased from 17 percent in 2021 to 32 percent in 2024, the equivalent of 2.2 million people.

In the last three years, ASH found more than half of current vapers who are ex-smokers had been vaping for more than three years, suggesting they had replaced one harmful habit with another.

In a 2017 survey, when the question was first asked as part of ASH’s analysis, just 17 percent of people had continued vaping for three years or longer.

Hazel Cheeseman, deputy chief executive of ASH, said in a statement, “Smoking is still the country’s biggest preventable killer and vaping is one of many tools needed to help smokers quit if we are to create a smokefree country for current as well as future generations.”

Professor Sanjay Agrawal, the Royal College of Physicians’ special adviser on tobacco and a consultant in respiratory and critical care medicine at the University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust, said: “In the past few years almost all the patients I see who manage to quit smoking do so through vaping and without it I fear many of them would not have.

“Vapes are already being used by stop smoking services and NHS support for smokers but they could be used more widely in our efforts to help the millions still smoking quit.”

Labour Revived Smoking Ban Bill

In July, the Labour Government revived plans to introduce the Conservative administration’s Tobacco and Vapes Bill that aims to progressively raise the age at which people can legally buy tobacco, preventing anyone born after Jan. 1, 2009, from ever being able to do so.

The bill, opposed by some backbench Conservatives on its first reading partly on libertarian grounds, also seeks to bring in restrictions on the flavours, packaging and display of vapes, aiming to make them less appealing to teenagers.

Some MPs in the last Parliament also opposed the bill because they said it was unclear who would police it in practical terms and argued it would lead to an arbitrary cut-off point where people who were just days or weeks older than their peers would be able to legally buy cigarettes, and that it would require adults buying cigarettes to continue showing ID throughout their lives to prove their date of birth.

Cheeseman said, “Tougher vape regulations are urgently needed, but it is important they are calibrated to address youth vaping while not deterring the use of vapes as quitting aids.”

Half Believe Vaping Is at least As Harmful as Cigarettes

Half of all smokers surveyed believe that vaping is equally or more harmful than smoking, along with 60 percent of smokers who have never used e-cigarettes. In contrast, just 24 percent of smokers who quit in the past five years share that opinion.

Cheeseman said, “Government must also communicate more effectively that vaping is less harmful than smoking but not risk free, and should only be used as an aid to quitting.”

Leonie Brose, a professor of addictions at King’s College London, added: “More than half of people who smoke long term will die prematurely due to smoking. Alarmingly, half of those who smoke think vaping is just as harmful or more harmful and almost as many are unaware that nicotine-containing medication is less harmful than smoking.

“These misperceptions are costing lives and we need continued focus on reducing the harms from smoking.”

A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: “While vaping can be an effective tool to stop smoking, the health advice is clear: children and adults that do not smoke should never vape. The upcoming Tobacco and Vapes Bill will protect future generations from the harms of tobacco and nicotine, saving thousands of lives and easing pressures on the NHS.

“By building a healthier society, we will help to build a healthy economy.”

PA Media contributed to this report