Thursday, May 8, 2014
Barely
any non-smokers are taking up the habit by smoking e-cigarettes, a new survey
has revealed. Almost all of the people smoking them are doing so in a bid to
stay off tobacco. Electronic cigarettes have trebled in popularity over the
past two years and more than two million Britons now regularly use them - up
from an estimated 700,000 in 2012.
Critics claim the
battery-powered devices, which contain nicotine but no tobacco, could act as a ‘gateway’ that gets non-smokers hooked. But
the new research, released by health charity Ash, claimed the number of
non-smokers using them was 'negligible'. Ash chief executive Deborah Arnott
said the online YouGov survey of 12,269 adults showed smokers are 'increasingly
turning to these devices to help them cut down or quit'.
The YouGov survey found that
more than half of ex-smokers (51.7 per cent) say that they have tried health electronic cigarettes, compared with just 8.2 per cent in 2010. Just over a third (35 per
cent) of British adults believe that electronic cigarettes are good for public
health while just under a quarter (22 per cent) disagree, the survey said. For
the first time, the Ash YouGov survey also asked about the type of electronic
cigarette commonly used, with just under half (47 per cent) using rechargeable
e-cigarettes with pre-filled cartridges and 41 per cent using rechargeable
devices with a separate tank. Just eight per cent said they most often use
disposable e-cigarettes.
Deborah Arnott, chief executive
of Ash said: 'The dramatic rise in use of electronic cigarettes over the past
four years suggests that smokers are increasingly turning to these devices to
help them cut down or quit smoking. Significantly, usage among non-smokers remains negligible.
A separate ongoing survey - the
Smoking Toolkit Study carried out in England - has also found that smokers are
increasingly using electronic cigarettes as an aid to quitting, overtaking use
of medicinal nicotine products such as patches and gum. The proportion of
smokers who have quit in the last year has increased and smoking rates in
England are continuing to fall.
Professor Robert West, who led
the study, said: 'Despite claims that use of electronic cigarettes risks
renormalising smoking, we found no evidence to support this view. On the
contrary, electronic cigarettes may be helping to reduce smoking as more people
use them as an aid to quitting.'
Charles Hamshaw-Thomas, legal
and corporate affairs director of e-cigarette company E-Lites, said: 'Study
after study is showing that scaremongering that e-cigarettes are luring people
into tobacco is baseless nonsense. The reverse is going on - smokers are
switching into e-cigarettes as the way to reduce the harm from tobacco.'
