22/05/2015

Rise In Electronic Cigarette Use

Over 2.5 million people are now using electronic cigarettes, new data has revealed.

There are currently 2.6m vapers in Britain, compared to 2.1m in 2014, according to figures published by Action on Health Smoking (ASH).

Data from the Smokefree Britain Survey, conducted by YouGov and analysed by researchers at King's College London, shows that electronic cigarette use between 2014 and 2015 has:

• Increased among ex-smokers (from 4.5% in 2014 to 6.7% in 2015)

• Remained the same among current smokers (17.6% of smokers in 2014 and 2015)

• Remained extremely rare among never-smokers (0.2% over the last three years).

The most popular reason current vapers gave for using electronic cigarettes was to help them stop smoking completely (48%) and to prevent them from relapsing to smoking (38%).

Deborah Arnott, Chief Executive of ASH, said: "The number of ex-smokers who are staying off tobacco by using electronic cigarettes is growing, showing just what value they can have, but the number of people who wrongly believe that vaping is as harmful as smoking is worrying.

"The growth of this false perception risks discouraging many smokers from using electronic cigarettes to quit and keep them smoking instead which would be bad for their health and the health of those around them."

(CD/JP)

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