According to new research by Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) in partnership with with Cancer Research UK, local authority run stop smoking services are increasingly offering e-cigarettes to help smokers quit their habits, providing further evidence that they represent a highly effective harm reduction method.
The study, Reaching Out, found that 40% of services offered vapes to adult smokers to help them transition from conventional cigarettes in 2021, a climb of 29% in just two years from 11% in 2019.
It comes as another ASH study reveals that the total cost of smoking to society totals some £17.04m for England each year, a major proportion which is attributed to the impact on productivity (£13.2bn).
John Dunne, director general of the UKVIA, says: “These statistics are further proof that vaping has a key contribution to play in the public health of the nation by being the most effective way of getting former smokers to quit.”
“It’s good to see more and more councils believing in the public health potential of vaping along with the healthcare sector which has seen the NHS taking part in trials to offer e-cigarettes to patients with smoking-related conditions. With so much misinformation out there on vaping, local authorities and hospitals have a crucial role to play in giving smokers confidence to consider vaping as a route out of using conventional cigarettes.”