The number of people vaping in Britain has jumped by 12.5% in the last year, reaching 3.6 million.
Action on Smoking and Health figures show the majority of people vaping are former smokers.
E-cigarettes are most popular amongst 35 to 44-year-olds, followed by 45 to 54-year-olds.
‘Vaping isn’t risk free, but it’s much less risky than smoking, which kills nearly 100,000 people a year in the UK,’ Ann McNeill, professor of tobacco addiction at King’s College London, told the Independent.
Giving up smoking
Action on Smoking and Health says vaping helped around 70,000 people quit smoking last year.
The report shows that of those that have taken up vaping:
- 54% have given up smoking
- 40% both smoke and vape
- 6% have never smoked.
‘It’s important that all vapers stop smoking completely,’ Professor McNeill said.
‘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.’
Vaping ban to improve oral health
In July San Francisco announced a ban on the sales of e-cigarettes until their effects on health are clearer.
The ban will come into effect in an attempt to curb the rise of vaping amongst youths.
Despite the ban, it will still be legal to purchase traditional cigarettes and marijuana products.
‘We spent a few decades fighting big tobacco in the form of cigarettes,’ Shamann Walton, who co-authored the legislation, said to The Guardian.
‘Now we have to do it again in the form of e-cigarettes.’
