Half A Million Smokers Switch To E-Cigs In Last Year

E cigarettes are getting extremely popular, and according to a survey carried out by ASH (Action Against Smoking) they helped half a million people in the UK quit smoking last year (The Mirror).

In the article by BBC News, it stated that the ASH research had shown that in the UK "there are now 2.6 million UK vapers, up from 2.1 million in 2014.".

These findings back the evidence that vaping is an effective way to help people quit smoking, despite various governing medical bodies still refusing to advocate vaping as an alternative to smoking. Statistics showed that 48% of people choose to start vaping to help them quit smoking and 38 % of people choose to start in order to prevent them relapsing back into using normal cigarettes. The evidence collated by ASH also pointed to worrying statistics that showed an increase in people falsely thinking vaping was just as harmful or even more harmful than smoking normal cigarettes from 15% last year to 22% this year  which shows that much more educated and balanced information needs to be available in the public domain.

Vaping Is Not A Gateway To Smoking

What's important to note is that the evidence also smashed the common assumption that vaping is a 'gateway to smoking' with statistics showing only a mere 0.2% of users actually fall into this category over the last 3 years. It's important for people to understand that the assumption vaping automatically leads to smoking is simply not true, and there is no evidence to support that assumption.

"Vaping Carries Many Benefits Over Traditional Smoking" - Dr Leonie Brose, of the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience at King's College London (BBC News)

Dr Brose stated - "We must clearly communicate the relative safety of electronic cigarettes to smokers. The proven harm of tobacco is currently getting less coverage than the much smaller and far less certain harm from electronic cigarettes. We owe it to smokers to provide them with accurate information."

Evidence from ASH and leading medical professionals is simply more proof amongst various studies and surveys that vaping is an excellent alternative to smoking normal cigarettes, and it is helping thousands of people quit smoking, and will help thousands more in the coming months.