Smokers turn to vaping as NHS Stoptober prompts a 29 per cent rise in e-cigarettes

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The latest sales figures show that Public Health England’s new harm reduction approach to decreasing smoking rates across the UK has not only been widely accepted, but capitalised upon this Stoptober. For the first time, vaping has featured prominently within the NHS Stoptober campaign, with the official website included in the Stoptober TV advertisement.

Vape Club – the UK’s largest online retailer of vaping products and e-cigarettes – saw e-cigarette starter kit sales increase by 29 per cent year on year following the launch of the 2017 campaign.

Through the adoption of this harm reduction strategy, the UK has seen record high rates of smoking cessation and is fast becoming a European leader in this respect.

This comes at a time when New York’s latest law will see vaping banned indoors in public places come into effect next month.

Director of Vape Club Dan Marchant says that the medical acceptance in the UK has provided a watershed moment for public health: “It’s fantastic to see the NHS finally backing vaping as a pathway to quit smoking.

“The industry has been backing this alternative for a long time, but with the evidence provided by Public Health England, endorsements from the likes of Cancer Research UK and the figures which are produced by Action on Smoking and Health (ASH), there can be no doubt that vaping is the most effective method to give up tobacco.

“The NHS advocating vaping as an alternative to tobacco is an enormous breakthrough and will do an outstanding amount of good for public health and tobacco control in the UK.”

Believed to be 95 per cent less harmful than traditional tobacco, e-cigarettes feature within the NHS’ Stoptober campaign as a way of phasing out tobacco rather than advocating – as seen in previous campaigns – the ‘cold turkey’ approach.