The United Kingdom’s leading anti-smoking organization, Action on Smoking and Health (ASH), has released a report detailing the use of vaping products in England, Scotland and Wales. The report is based on a survey of 13,000 adults and has been widely publicized in British media.
ASH reports that there has been a large increase in the number of people who vape in Great Britain, with 4.3 million current vapers in 2022, a 19.4 percent increase from 3.6 million in 2021.
Further, more than half (2.4 million) of current e-cigarette users in the 2022 survey had switched entirely from combustible cigarettes to vaping.
Unlike the United States, the public health establishment in the United Kingdom is quite relaxed about adult e-cigarette use, and the report was greeted with enthusiasm by the anti-smoking group. ASH’s deputy chief executive, Hazel Cheeseman, is quoted as saying that the increase in smokers switching to vaping was “great news.” Even the reported rise in never smokers taking up vaping does not overly concern Cheeseman, who said that vaping among this group tended to be “rare” and “experimental.”
Furthermore, ASH revealed that fruit flavors are the most popular flavor used by U.K. adult vapers, with 41 percent of those surveyed using them. Menthol is next most popular at 19 percent. Interestingly, only 15 percent of respondents claimed tobacco as their main flavor of choice. E-cigarettes are available in a wide variety of flavors in the U.K. with little or no consternation from the government, government-funded health organizations, public health charities and non-government organizations. All recognize that flavors are important to vapers in distancing them from the taste of combustible tobacco.
In their press release, ASH declared that a “vaping revolution” had occurred over the past decade. This came quickly after an ASH briefing on youth vaping in the U.K., which was endorsed by several high-profile public health bodies and in collaboration with regulatory experts and academics. The briefing quashed media claims that youth vaping risks becoming a potential “public health catastrophe” leading to a “generation hooked on nicotine.”
Martin Cullip – InsideSources – 2022-09-11.
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