Most UK smokers wrongly believe vaping is as dangerous as cigarettes

New research reported this week shows that most UK smokers now wrongly believe vaping carries similar risks to smoking — a dangerous and persistent misperception that public health experts say is driving smokers away from one of the most effective tools available to help them quit.

The Smokefree Great Britain survey found that 54% of UK adults, and 52% of smokers, believe vaping is as harmful or more harmful than smoking.

This is a direct contradiction of the scientific consensus: the Royal College of Physicians has found e-cigarettes to be 95% less harmful than smoking, an assessment endorsed by the UK government.

The gap between public perception and evidence has widened steadily over the past decade — in 2019, 27% of smokers who had never vaped held this misperception; today it stands at 61%.

This is not a marginal misunderstanding. Vaping has helped an estimated 30,000 to 50,000 additional smokers in England quit each year since 2013, supported by NHS programmes such as Swap to Stop. Where accurate relative-risk information reaches smokers, it works.

Where it doesn’t, smokers are choosing to stay with the option that carries the greatest harm. “The evidence is not ambiguous. Combustion kills — nicotine, in the context of smoke-free products, need not. Vapes and non-combustion alternatives offer adults who have not yet managed to quit a real pathway away from cigarettes.

“We need a more coherent, evidence-based public health strategy that reduces youth vaping but allows adults to make informed, harm-reducing, choices” — Dr Delon Human, Leader, THR.net THR.net is calling on public health bodies, media, and policymakers to close this evidence gap by communicating the relative risk of vaping accurately and consistently, alongside, not instead of, robust measures to prevent youth uptake.

Smokers seeking to quit deserve clear, proportionate information about their options. Public health advocates encourage anyone currently smoking to seek out evidence-based guidance on switching, and call on journalists and health communicators to ensure coverage of vaping r