Researchers at King’s College London found that vaping is better for quitting smoking than nicotine replacement therapy, but incorrect perceptions of vaping’s relative risks compared to smoking may discourage smokers from using vaping to quit.
Public Health England’s (PHE) seventh independent report on vaping in England took an in-depth look at the latest evidence on the effectiveness of nicotine vaping products in helping people to stop smoking. PHE found that nicotine vaping products were the most popular smoking cessation aid (27.2%) used in England in 2020. This is in comparison to 18.2% using nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) products such as patches and gum and 4.4% using varenicline, a prescription medicine.
Data from systematic reviews since PHE’s 2018 report revealed that vaping products were significantly more effective than NRTs in helping smokers to stop. An estimated 50,000 smokers stopped smoking with the aid of a vaping product in 2017.
Similar to last year, around 6% of adults in England, or about 2.7 million, are current vapers. Smoking prevalence continues to fall and is between 13.8%-16.0% depending on the survey, while vaping prevalence was between 17.5%-20.1% among current smokers, around 11.0% among former smokers, and between 0.3%-0.6% among those who have never smoked.
Since the last PHE report in March 2020, vaping plateaued in adults and young people as there are still concerns around increasing misperception of the relative risk caused by vaping products. Professor John Newton, PHE’s director of health improvement, said, “Thousands more could have quit except for unfounded safety fears about e-cigarettes. The evidence has been clear for some time that - while not risk free - vaping is far less harmful than smoking.”
PHE’s advice remains that smokers should switch to vaping products to help them quit smoking, but non-smokers should not take up vaping.