Industry defends vaping amid concerns over rising use among non-smokers

Vape industry leaders have pushed back against growing concerns about an increase in vaping among people who have never regularly smoked, following a study from University College London (UCL) revealing that one million adults in England now fall into this category.

The sharp rise, which has largely been driven by the popularity of disposable vapes among young adults, has prompted warnings from researchers about the public health implications. However, industry representatives argue that vaping remains a critical tool for smoking cessation and dispute some of the study’s conclusions.

John Dunne, director general of the UK Vaping Industry Association (UKVIA), emphasised that vaping products are intended primarily for smokers trying to quit. He highlighted the role of e-cigarettes in reducing smoking rates in the UK, citing recent data from the Office for National Statistics.

Dunne also expressed concern over the study’s definition of “never-regular-smokers,” which includes those who may have previously smoked but not for a sustained period. He pointed out that vaping could be preventing individuals from becoming regular smokers.

“This definition is problematic as it does not exclusively include what most people would define as non-smokers. As the study authors also point out, it is impossible to say if their cohort, whether experimenting with cigarettes already or not, would not have become smokers were it not for vapes,” he noted.

“Vaping should only be for smokers looking to quit, but we also need to ensure that those smokers continue to have access to what they need in order to quit,” Dunne added, stressing the need to balance regulation without undermining vaping’s role in harm reduction.

Liam Humberstone, technical director at vape firm Totally Wicked, echoed Dunne’s sentiment, warning of a growing misconception that vaping is as harmful as smoking.

“It is reasonable to hypothesise that many young adults in this study who have started vaping would likely otherwise have become ‘social smokers’ if vaping had not been an option,” he said.

Humberstone expressed concern that misleading narratives are driving former smokers back to cigarettes, undoing years of progress in harm reduction. He highlighted alarming statistics showing that public understanding of vaping’s safety has plummeted, with only 7.7 per cent of the population correctly recognising vaping as significantly less harmful than smoking.

“Even more alarming is the fact that 50 per cent of both smokers and the general population now incorrectly believe that vaping is either as harmful as, or even more harmful than smoking. This is a dramatic increase from 10 years ago, when just 15 per cent of all adults and 10 per cent of smokers held such incorrect views,” he pointed out, adding that this shift in perception is “not only disappointing, but dangerous.”

“With so many people wrongly believing that vaping is as dangerous as smoking, we risk seeing more individuals either continue smoking or revert back to cigarettes, with devastating consequences for their health,” he said. “This misinformation is not just creating confusion—it is costing lives.”

The UCL study, funded by Cancer Research UK and published in Lancet Public Health, found that the number of never-regular-smokers vaping had increased sevenfold since 2021, coinciding with the rise of disposable vapes. The study noted that young adults aged 18-24 were most likely to take up vaping, with one in seven now using e-cigarettes despite never having smoked regularly.

While researchers acknowledged that some individuals might have smoked if vaping were not available, they cautioned that sustained, long-term vaping could pose more risks for those who would not have otherwise picked up cigarettes.

Senior author Professor Jamie Brown, of the UCL Institute of Epidemiology & Health Care, suggested that stricter regulations on the marketing and appearance of vaping products might help mitigate the rise in vaping among young non-smokers without deterring smokers from using e-cigarettes to quit.

“Banning disposables, as the UK government currently plans, is unlikely to fix the issue as popular brands have already launched reusable products with very similar designs and prices,” Professor Brown said.

“A sensible next step would be to introduce stricter regulation around product appearance, packaging and marketing, as those are less likely to reduce the effectiveness of e-cigarettes for smoking cessation – unlike, for instance, flavour bans. The fact that overall vaping prevalence appears to have levelled off since 2023 may reassure policymakers that it would be reasonable to begin with these measures and assess their impact.”