Vaping and e-cigarettes

Vaping is a rapidly increasing way of inhaling nicotine. As it becomes more popular there are increasing concerns around:

The number of young people starting to vape
The harmful effects of vaping
The effect of disposable vapes on the environment

What are e-cigarettes?

An e-cigarette or vape is a device that allows you to inhale nicotine in a vapour rather than smoke. Because they do not contain tar or carbon monoxide, they are less harmful than cigarettes; they also do not contain tobacco.

Vaping is an alternative for smokers who want to reduce their risk of dying from a smoking-related disease and protect others from second-hand smoke.

Vaping is an effective tool to help people to quit smoking tobacco, however, we recognise that vaping is not risk-free and therefore vaping must be presented as an alternative to or replacement for smoking, not an activity which is appealing to the wider non-smoking population.

It is illegal in the UK to sell nicotine vaping products to anyone under the age of 18 or for adults to buy them on behalf of under-18s.

Vaping is not for children and whilst it can help people quit smoking, those who don’t smoke should not vape.

How do I quit vaping?

Whilst e-cigarettes or vapes are safer than smoking they are not meant to be used long term, we can help you quit them too. You should continue using your e-cigarette or vapes for as long as it helps to prevent you going back to smoking. You should only quit vaping if you are confident that you are ready to quit and will not relapse back to smoking.

Methods to quit vaping

Reduce nicotine concentration

You can try reducing the nicotine strength of the vape at intervals (20mg–10mg–5mg to 0mg or 18mg–12mg–6mg–3mg–0mg equivalent).

The speed at which you reduce the concentration will differ and can be taken at your own pace. As a general rule, the early stages of quitting are at a higher risk of relapse and therefore you should reduce the nicotine more slowly.

Changing your behaviour

Try to extend the time between vaping (e.g. 20 minutes between vaping becomes 40 minutes). You could also set rules for where you do and do not vape, to gradually reduce use (e.g. only use when outside of the home or car, only on breaks at work). Note: This will not necessarily lead to a reduction in the amount of nicotine vaped, but it will weaken the link between vaping and specific situations and times.

Putting the vape out of sight can help you to achieve this as well as taking short puffs when you do vape.

Quit vaping in one step

Another method of quitting vaping involves seeing how you get on for one day without the vape and use distraction techniques to help you.

You can return to vaping if you would otherwise have a cigarette. Vaping is far less harmful than smoking. If you do feel the urge to smoke, the process should be paused until you are more comfortable.

Using nicotine replacement therapy (NRT)

Nicotine replacement therapy products can be purchased from most supermarkets to aid the your journey. This can prove very useful during the early stages of quitting. It is advised to use combination NRT (nicotine patch plus faster-acting product).

Keep aware of your risk of relapsing to smoking

If you do have any urges to smoke, you can use vaping and increase the frequency or dose of nicotine until those feelings go away. This can prevent relapse to smoking. You can then restart your quit journey when you feel comfortable. It would be a good idea to keep an e-cigarette or vape and/or NRT product at hand for situations when a sudden trigger causes an urge to smoke.

Always remember, that a relapse to vaping is not a failure and is significantly less harmful than smoking. You can find more information on the NHS website and National Centre for Smoking Cessation and Training website.

Frequently asked questions

Only a small proportion of adults who smoke accurately believe that vaping is less harmful than smoking. Therefore, we are here to provide evidence-based answers to the questions you may have around vaping.

How harmful is vaping compared to smoking?

Nicotine vaping is not risk-free, but it is substantially less harmful than smoking
In the short and medium-term, vaping poses a small fraction of the risks of smoking however the long term impacts are not yet known
People who switch completely from smoking to vaping have significantly reduced exposure to toxins associated with risks of cancer, lung disease, heart disease and stroke
Over 500,000 admissions to hospital a year are caused by smoking, compared with 420 for ‘vaping-related disorder’. In other words, there are over 1,000 hospital admissions due to smoking for each one linked to vaping.

Around 5,000 children are admitted to hospital every year because of passive exposure to tobacco smoke, compared with 40 admissions among those under 20 in 2022 for ‘vaping related disorder’.

Is nicotine harmful to your health?

Although nicotine is addictive, it is relatively harmless to your health
Nicotine itself does not cause cancer, lung disease, heart disease or stroke and has been used safely for many years in medicines to help people stop smoking.

Does vaping help people to quit smoking?

Nicotine vapes are one of the most effective stop smoking aids
Evidence shows that nicotine vapes are actually more effective than nicotine replacement therapies, like patches or gum
Some people find vaping helps them because the hand-to-mouth action is like smoking, plus you get similar sensations, like “throat hit”
It’s important to choose an e-liquid with enough nicotine to reduce withdrawal symptoms and urges to smoke. A specialist vape shop or Live Well advisor can advise you
Almost two-thirds of people who use a vape along with support from their local stop smoking service successfully quit smoking.

Is switching to a vape just swapping one harmful addiction for another?

While vapes contain the same addictive substance as cigarettes, vaping nicotine is far less harmful
Smoking gives you nicotine by burning tobacco, which creates many harmful toxins that can cause serious illnesses including cancer, lung disease, heart disease and stroke.
Vaping gives you nicotine by heating an e-liquid, which is much less harmful. Vaping exposes users to far fewer toxins and at lower levels than smoking cigarettes.
When you are ready and feel sure you won’t go back to smoking, you can gradually reduce the nicotine strength in your e-liquid and your vaping frequency until you have stopped fully and are nicotine-free.

Is it worst if you use vapes more frequently than cigarettes?

It is normal to vape more frequently than you used to smoke, and this is not more harmful
Each puff on a vape carries a small fraction of the risks of a puff on a cigarette
Vaping is different from smoking in the way it delivers nicotine to the brain. With smoking, you get a very quick hit in the short time it takes to smoke a cigarette
With vaping, generally it takes longer for nicotine to reach the brain and you need to ‘sip’ on your vape more frequently
It’s important to use your vape as much as you need to help you stop smoking and stay smoke free.

Does vaping cause ‘popcorn lung’?

Vaping does not cause ‘popcorn lung’, the common name for a rare disease called bronchiolitis obliterans
The disease was found in a group of factory workers exposed to a chemical (diacetyl) used to flavour popcorn
Diacetyl is contained in cigarette smoke, but it is banned as an ingredient in UK-regulated nicotine vapes and e-liquids.

Is exposure to vape aerosol harmful to people around you?

While second hand smoke from cigarettes causes serious harm to others, there is no evidence so far that vaping is harmful to people around you, and any risks are likely to be very low
As a precaution, it is best not to vape around babies and children if you can avoid it. Young children often copy what adults do
Always be considerate when vaping around anyone else, especially people with health conditions like asthma who might be more sensitive to vape aerosol.

Why do children vape?

The main reason children give for vaping is ‘to give it a try’, stated by a quarter (26%) of those who have smoked tobacco and more than a half (54%) of those who have never smoked.
The next most common reason is because ‘other people use them, so I join in’, in other words peer pressure (21% of smokers and 18% of people who have never smoked).
Liking the flavours comes third on the list, cited by 16% of ever smokers and 12% of never smokers as their reason for trying vaping.