While authorities in the United States increasingly move to ban parts or all of vaping, those in the United Kingdom are encouraging people who smoke to start vaping as an effective way to give up and get healthier.
That’s the latest advice from Public Health England (PHE), the government body tasked with overseeing the health of the nation, as it issued a new advisory on the use of e-cigarettes following similar advice over the last number of years. The UK has been at the forefront of research into the use of e-cigs and many medical and other bodies, including the Royal College of Physicians, have thrown their weight behind vaping because they believe it has substantial public health benefits compared to smoking.
What Did PHE Say about Vaping?
PHE worked with researchers at the prestigious King’s College London to examine the evidence of vaping among adults and young people and also to find out what their views are on any potential risks or harms related to using e-cigarettes. What they found was there exists a substantial perception that vaping is bad for people’s health and this was preventing smokers from making the change to vapes.
These “false fears”, PHE said, were due to deaths and illnesses from vaping in the US towards the end of last year. But those instances were because people were mixing substances into their e-liquid that are not available in the UK, which has a more heavily regulated vaping market than in the States. There have been no such fatalities of from vaping related illnesses in Britain.
“The mistaken belief that e-cigarettes are more harmful than smoking increased rapidly among UK smokers following the US lung injury outbreak in autumn 2019,” PHE said. “US authorities have now confirmed that vitamin E acetate, a thickening agent added to cannabis vaping products, was a primary cause of the US outbreak. This substance is banned from UK-regulated nicotine vaping products.”
It added: “PHE’s advice remains that smokers should switch to e-cigarettes to help them quit smoking, but non-smokers should not take up vaping.”
Why Is Vaping Considered Better Than Smoking?
An e-cigarette — of which there are now many types that essentially do the same thing — heats a liquid containing a flavour and nicotine and delivers it in vapour to the person using it. Crucially, there is no burning tobacco in the vape. It’s the burning tobacco — which happens with cigarettes — that releases thousands of toxic chemicals, dozens of which are known to cause cancers.
Nicotine is not known to be harmful to human health, even if it is addictive. E-liquid contains low, medium and high levels of nicotine, and it can also contain none — just a flavour alone. This allows vapers to gradually wean themselves off nicotine until they’re just vaping for the flavours they like.
Britain’s National Health Service runs an annual stop-smoking campaign in October, called Stoptober, and for several years now has also been advising smokers to switch to vapes. Plus the country is now home to a growing army of vape shops, and many people may also get their vapes from an online vape store, where there will be strict measures in place to confirm someone’s identity and age before they can buy e-cigarettes or e-liquid.
Meanwhile, Professor John Newton of Public Health England said of the new review into vaping that it was “concerning” to see that smokers in the UK may be put off vaping because of what has happened in the US. He urged British smokers to make the transition as quickly as possible.
“E-cigarettes are far less harmful than smoking, which causes 220 premature deaths a day in England,” he said. “Our advice remains that for anyone who smokes tobacco, the most important thing is to stop smoking altogether and e-cigarettes can be an effective way to help smokers do that.”
