One million people who never regularly smoked now vape, study shows

There has been a sevenfold summation successful 'never smokers' vaping since 2021, erstwhile disposable e-cigarettes archetypal became popular. Most vape regular and person done truthful for a sustained period

One cardinal radical who ne'er regularly smoked present vape, caller probe shows.

A nationalist reappraisal by University College London has revealed a sevenfold summation successful "never smokers" vaping since 2021, erstwhile disposable e-cigarettes archetypal became popular. Most vape regular and person done for a sustained period. This summation was mostly driven by young adults, with an estimated 1 successful 7 18 to 24-year-olds who ne'er regularly smoked present utilizing e-cigarettes.

Researchers accidental immoderate young radical who would person antecedently started smoking person taken up e-cigarettes. They concluded that, among the big colonisation successful England overall, the emergence successful vaping had levelled disconnected since aboriginal 2023.

Author Professor Jamie Brown said: “These findings are a reminder that enactment is required to effort to minimise vaping among young radical who person ne'er antecedently smoked. However, a balancing enactment is required to debar deterring smokers from utilizing e-cigarettes to quit. A sensible adjacent measurement would beryllium to present stricter regularisation astir merchandise appearance, packaging and marketing.”

The survey looked astatine survey information collected betwixt 2016 and 2024 from 153,000 adults successful England, of whom 94,107 had ne'er regularly smoked tobacco. In the King's Speech successful July, ministers promised to array a Tobacco and Vapes Bill to progressively summation the property astatine which radical tin bargain cigarettes, akin to a Bill of the aforesaid sanction tabled by the erstwhile Conservative medication earlier this twelvemonth - to prohibition shopkeepers from selling cigarettes to anybody calved successful 2009 oregon later.

The survey authors said banning disposable vapes, arsenic the UK Government presently plans, is not apt to hole the occupation arsenic immoderate brands person already launched reusable products. Before 2021, the proportionality of never-regular-smokers who vaped successful England was low, astatine an mean of 0.5 per cent betwixt 2016 and 2020. This accrued to 3.5 per cent by April 2024, equating to astir a cardinal vapers.

Among these 588,000 were aged betwixt 18 and 24, the survey found. Lead writer Dr Sarah Jackson said: “The nationalist wellness interaction of this important emergence successful vaping among radical who person ne'er regularly smoked volition beryllium connected what these radical would different beryllium doing.

“It is apt that immoderate would person smoked if vaping were not an disposable option. In this case, vaping is intelligibly little harmful. However, for those who would not person gone connected to smoke, vaping regularly implicit a sustained play poses much hazard than not vaping.”