Ash Study: more than half of British vapers are former smokers
The annual study led by Ash (Action on Smoking and Health), a charity dedicated to eliminate the harm caused by tobacco, has found out that, for the first time since 2012, ex smokers were a majority among vapers (52%), namely 1.5 million out of the 2.9 million British vapers.
45% of them use both traditional and electronic cigarettes. 3% of the vapers had never smoked.
Vapers say they use e-cigarettes to help them give up tobacco entirely and to save money.
For ASH, this is very good news, even though its chief executive Deborah Arnott admits that there is still much to do. There are almost 9 million active smokers in the UK. And a third of them has never tried vaping, concerned about the safety and addictiveness of e-cigarettes.
Deborah Arnott is however adamant that ‘it is important that smokers understand that vaping is much, much less harmful than smoking’.
The study has indeed showed a certain ignorance of vaping. Only 13% of the surveyed people think that e-cigs are less harmful than tobacco. On the contrary, more than a quarter of them believe they are more or equally harmful.
Resources
You can download the whole report dedicated to the UK electronic cigarette market.
To know more about ASH, Action on Smoking and Health.
