It’s been a decade since e-cigarettes first gained popularity in the UK. Since then, the types of devices available and the number of people using them has risen sharply.
And as the popularity levels of e-cigarettes grew, so did the debate around them.
The big selling point for e-cigarettes is they’re a way to help people stop smoking and reduce harm from the biggest cause of cancer in the world, tobacco.
But it’s a balancing act. E-cigarettes contain nicotine and so it’s important to make sure that people who have never smoked, particularly young people, don’t start to use them.
While it may be hard to remember a time before vaping, in the grand scheme of research, 10 years isn’t that long. And there’s still a lot more we need to understand about them.
Linda Bauld, Professor of Public Health at the University of Edinburgh and Cancer Research UK’s prevention adviser says, “These are still relatively new products. But a huge amount of research has been done. It’s a far more sophisticated discussion now than it was in the early years.”
Alice Davies – Cancer Research UK – 2021-04-26.