Vaping is less harmful than smoking according to a major review of nicotine products.
According to researchers at King's College London, smokers who switch to Vaping will experience a substantial reduction in their exposure to toxic substances that cause cancer, lung and cardiovascular disease.
Half of all regular, long-term smokers are killed by smoking, but a survey in England found that two-thirds of adult smokers were unaware of the less harmful effects of Vaping.
Vaping poses a small fraction of the risks of smoking in the short to medium term, but this doesn't mean it's risk-free for people who have never smoked.
The co-author of the report said that the goal of a smoke-free England by the year 2030.
The Department of Health and Social Care commissioned the most comprehensive review of the health risks of Vaping. More than 400 published studies from around the world were used by the researchers to look at the effects of smoking and e-liquids on the body.
The scientists gained little insight into potentially more serious long-term health effects that arise after years of using the products because most studies reported short- or medium-term effects.
The report found that levels of toxic substances, such as carbon monoxide and volatile organic compounds, were the same or less in vapers than in smokers. People who didn't use nicotine had lower levels.
Smoking has gone down among adults in England, but the same trend is not happening among younger people. Vaping rose from 4.8% to 8.6% among 11- to 18-year-olds in the last five years. In the past year, rates of vaping have doubled among 16 to 18 year olds, but the most striking rise was in newer, disposable vapes, which are now used by more than half of young vapers, up from 7.8% last year.
It is illegal to sell e-liquids to children under the age of 18 and secondary schools have reported a rise in the use of disposable e-liquids.
The authors called for better law enforcement to prevent shopkeepers and other suppliers from selling to children.
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They wrote that the advertising, packaging and marketing of disposable products to young people should be investigated.
The report says that deterrents need to be designed so they don't discourage smokers from making the switch.
Lion Shahab is a professor of health psychology and co-director of the Tobacco and Alcohol Research Group at University College London.
Ensuring that adult smokers get the right support, which includes provision of accurate information about the reduced risk of vaping and how it can help them stop smoking, while also offering educational material to young people who would have never smoked, to discourage them from starting to vape, is something we should do Smoking cigarettes can be consigned to the history books in the UK with the help of e-cigarettes.
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