Vaping safer than smoking – so why are people struggling to quit e-cigarettes?

Key Highlights

• Many people who vape say they want to stop, or at least cut down, and are discovering that it is harder than they expected.
• Some are even considering returning to smoking cigarettes, which for all their dangers, were harder to puff mindlessly at a desk or to conceal from those around them.‘Success is shutting them down’: Met police in fight against illegal vape and phone shopsRead moreConfusion about risk may be compounding the problem.
• Some public health experts worry that the risks of vaping may have been overstated – and that this could be inadvertently encouraging a new generation of smokers.
• Data released in September by the charity Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) found that 63% of young people now believe vaping is as harmful as, or more harmful than, smoking, despite decades of evidence showing cigarettes remain far more dangerous. So, if you want to quit vaping – or simply do it less – what does the evidence say about what actually works?At first glance, vaping and smoking can feel similar: both deliver nicotine, both involve inhalation, and both can become deeply habitual.
• But public health experts are unequivocal that they sit in very different risk categories.“We can be absolutely confident that vaping is far less harmful than smoking,” said Martin Dockrell, the recently retired tobacco evidence lead at the UK’s Office for Health Improvement and Disparities.