“VApril is a campaign to encourage more people to quit smoking through taking up vaping during April. VApril is organised by the UK Vaping Industry Association, the country’s leading forum for supporting, developing and promoting the circa £1bn vaping sector,” reads the campaign’s website.
The largest campaign organised by the vaping industry
This initiative is being organised by the UK Vaping Industry Association (UKVIA), and the face of the campaign will be renowned TV personality, Dr Christian Jessen. “This will be the largest campaign ever run by the vaping industry and reflects how far the sector has come in a relatively short period of time,” said UKVIA director John Dunne.
“The challenge for the industry, government and the public health community is to get across the message that e-cigarettes are a very small risk compared to smoking and that nearly 3m smokers are now vaping, with a significant number having switched over altogether. VApril aims to be the starting point for more smokers to quit their habit,” added Dunne.
The PHE’s latest report confirmed the relative safety of e-cigs
VApril is launched following the recent expert e-cigarettes evidence review report released by Public Health England (PHE), which confirms the organization’s 2015 report findings, that vaping is at least 95% than smoking.
“I am always amazed and disappointed to hear that we still have 7m smokers in this country and, according to PHE, around 40% of them have never tried vaping. Furthermore, more than half of the population don’t realise that vaping is a fraction of the risk of smoking,” pointed out the campaign’s spokesperson Dr Christian Jessen.
“That’s why I’m a committed supporter of the idea of a national vaping awareness campaign such as VApril to encourage smokers to take the first steps to quitting their habit. Already some 1.5m vapers have given up smoking altogether, but more education is needed to ensure this figure keeps growing.”
Take the VApril Challenge
The campaign will call upon all UK smokers to “Take the VApril Challenge”, which will consist of vaping classes at vape specialist stores, where smokers can learn all about the different harm reduction products available, and also about the most effective methods to quit smoking. The UKVIA has also released an accompanying educative guide, Vaping to break the Smoking Habit, in order to assist smokers through this challenge.
