Rising smoking rates: Vapers return to cigs amid misinformation on vapes

Smoking rates in parts of England have increased for the first time in nearly two decades, shows a new research published on Tuesday (18). Industry experts suspect misinformation around vapes and impending regulation on flavours are pushing vape users back to smoking cigarettes.

While smoking rates have decreased since 2006, the rate of decline has flatlined from 2020, and in some areas of the UK smoking rates are increasing again.

New research, by Haypp, looks into vape user’s perception of harm across a range of nicotine products, highlighting a serious lack of awareness when it comes to which products are more harmful than others, potentially contributing to this rise in cigarette use.

The survey, to which all respondents were current vape users, showed that consumers did not see a significant difference in harm levels between cigarettes, vapes, and nicotine pouches.

In fact, respondents believed that the three products were similarly harmful, rating all three as being between 4.5 to 6 out of 10, on a scale from not harmful to very harmful.

This is a shocking statistic given that there is a substantial body of evidence, including NHS research, that proves that cigarettes are much more harmful than vapes and nicotine pouches.

This research coincides with the latest data from University College London, highlighting a rising issue with smoking cigarettes, and the understanding of their harm to public health.

Haypp’s latest vape report also highlights that significant number of vapes users could return to smoking cigarettes, depending on how UK laws on vaping may change:

20 per cent of current vape users would return to smoking cigarettes if vapes were no longer available to them while ·37 per cent admitted they would return to smoking cigarettes if vape flavours were to be banned in the UK.

10 per cent of vape users say they may return to smoking cigarettes following the disposable vape ban in June.

Markus Lindblad, Nicotine Expert and Head of External Affairs at Haypp, said, “For many years, the UK government has had great success in reducing smoking rates.

"However, this new research, combined with Haypp’s statistics paint a very worrying picture, one that industry experts have been concerned about for some time now.

"There is a great deal of confusion amongst UK consumers as to how harmful cigarettes are compared with alternative nicotine products and most smokers wrongly believe that vaping is as harmful as cigarettes.

"UK consumers are exposed to a great deal of misinformation about vapes and nicotine pouches, and this needs to be addressed to enable people to make informed choices about less harmful nicotine products.

"Public information campaigns about the true harm levels of cigarettes compared with vapes should be facilitated by health authorities.

“As a responsible retailer, we hope to help inform nicotine users about the dangers of smoking cigarettes, and highlight the benefits of switching to alternative products, such as nicotine pouches.

"Thanks to snus and nicotine pouches, Sweden is set to become Europe’s first smoke-free country and we have further research to show that if the UK adopted similar laws, up to 28,410 lives could be saved every year.

"The importance of this type of education cannot be understated and we hope more is done to deter potentially millions of people from smoking cigarettes.”