Great Britain: 1.1 million vapers are former smokers

According to the annual survey of the ASH, Great Britain has 2.6 million of vapers among which 1.1 million have totally stopped smoking, and the use of the vaporizer within non-smokers is very unusual.

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June 25, 2015

UK ASH (Action on Smoking and Health), a leading association of fight against smoking in the UK .

The proportion of ex-smokers keeps increasing among British vapers

The British Association of fight against smoking ASH has been conducting an annual surveys since 2010 on the use of electronic cigarettes by adults in Great Britain. This year, the survey was conducted online from February 26 to March 12 over 12,000 individuals. The figures have been weighted and are representative of all UK adults aged 18 and older.

E-cigarette use among current adult smokers in Great Britain (2010-2015).
Source ASH 891

ASH estimated that 2.6 million adults currently use the electronic cigarette (they were 2.1 million in 2014),
1.1 million users quit smoking and 1.5 million are vapers,
2 out of 5 users are out of tobacco (they were 1 out of 3 in 2014),
the proportion of smokers who also use the electronic cigarette (dual users) remained unchanged since last year, it stabilized at 17.6%,
the number of vapers increases thanks to ex-smokers. They are 6.7% to use the electronic cigarette regularly (they were 4.5% in 2014),
the share of non-smokers who regularly use the e-cigarette is negligible.

The reasons to use a personal vaporizer are different for ex-smokers and current ones

Complete stop is the main reason to use a vaporizer for 61% ex-smokers,
53 % of them use it to prevent relapse after tobacco withdrawal and 38% consider it a cheaper than tobacco,
43% of dual users want to reduce their smoking without quitting, the complete cessation of smoking is envisaged using the vaporizer by 41% of them, 25% use the electronic cigarette where smoking is prohibited.

Ex-smokers vape more than dual users

84% ex-smokers are using electronic cigarettes on a daily basis (45 % among dual users)
37% smokers use it once a week or more often.

The vapers predominantly use a vaporizer of at least a second-generation

66% vapers use rechargeable systems with tanks. They are only 28% to have started directly with this type of material, 41% were enlightened to vape with pre-filled cartridge systems (they were 18% and 51 % in 2014)
Users of electronic cigarette with pre-filled cartridges are rather found among dual users (31%) against only 20 % among ex-smokers.

The perceived harmfulness of e-cigarette deteriorates

52.5% respondents in 2015 believe that the e-cigarette is less dangerous than conventional ones,
the share of those who think it is as dangerous as smoking cigarettes has increased to almost 20% in 2015 against 13.4% in 2014,
2.3% believe that the e-cigarette is more dangerous than tobacco, they were 1.7% in 2014.