As per a survey done by Action on Smoking and Health, the total number of Brits who vape e-cigs has crossed 3 million for the first ever time and this number is four times the number that was seen in 2012. Majority of the Brits are seen to be using electronic cigarettes as they’ve already ditched smoking and 40{35d957b05c72c0966a35285c5563331da4031a80ba3d63cb875e2b9dff81b177} of the smokers are trying their best to quit. These aforementioned estimations are based on a survey that was done on 15,000 British adults.
Nevertheless, there is still a looming belief that vaping is equally bad as smoking. Earlier in 2018, the Public Health England requested electronic cigarettes to be recommended on prescription keeping in mind the way they’ve helped so many people quit smoking and prevent causing further harm to their health. Companies like V2 Cigs UK have helped people all around the country to quit their habit of smoking tobacco cigarettes by switching to vaping. A report by the members of the parliament said that the rules which bind electronic cigarettes should be made lenient and they should no longer be banned in public.
Smoking and non-smoking status in Great Britain
There are estimates of a 12{35d957b05c72c0966a35285c5563331da4031a80ba3d63cb875e2b9dff81b177} rise in the number of e-cigarette users in between 2017 and 2018, which is up from 3 to 3.1 million. However, there are still many smokers, around one-third, who haven’t yet tried vaping e-cigarettes. Though the number of smokers who believe that vaping is much less harmful than smoking is increasing gradually, 24{35d957b05c72c0966a35285c5563331da4031a80ba3d63cb875e2b9dff81b177} still are of the opinion that they’re equally bad or even worse. If you consider the general public, 1 among 4 adults believe vaping to be as harmful as smoking.
From the survey, 20{35d957b05c72c0966a35285c5563331da4031a80ba3d63cb875e2b9dff81b177} correctly believed vaping to be much less harmful than smoking but 24{35d957b05c72c0966a35285c5563331da4031a80ba3d63cb875e2b9dff81b177} said that they’re still confused about which is more harmful. The chief executive of a charity group, Ash, Deborah Arnott said that the British policy on e-cigarettes is on the perfect track which is making thousands of smokers switch to vaping and thereby improving their health. But he also adds that there could be even more who could reap the benefits of e-cigs if the devices were prescribed by doctors.
Although there are constant contradictions by a separate group which mistakenly believes that vaping is as harmful as smoking, yet there are constant campaigns by the Public Health England which challenges these views. The 3 main reasons behind ex-smokers switching to e-cigarettes were to ditch their habit of smoking, to save money and because they enjoyed it.
More and more pharmacists and doctors should be crystal clear with people about the wide array of products available in the market that they could try to stop smoking.