A Million Britons Who Never Smoked Now Vape
Some 1.1 million people who have never smoked regularly now vape, up from about 940,000 last year, according to official figures. For the second year running more people over 16 vape than smoke — 5.4 million against 4.9 million, with smoking down from 5.3 million. The heaviest-vaping group is now 25 to 34-year-olds rather than the young adults below them.
The shift in age is the interesting part. At 16.4%, those aged 25 to 34 have overtaken 16 to 24-year-olds, which the statistician David Mais said “may reflect existing users getting older, growing popularity among this age group, or a combination of both” — the difference between a habit ageing with a cohort and a habit spreading into a new one. Smoking continues to fall: fewer than one adult in ten now smokes, the steepest decline is among 18 to 24-year-olds, and half of current smokers say they intend to quit. Hazel Cheeseman of Action on Smoking and Health said smoking “remains the biggest driver of preventable death in the UK. Now is the time to finish the job.” Kruti Shrotri of Cancer Research UK put the trade-off carefully: “Although we don’t know the long-term risks of vaping, evidence so far shows that legal vapes are less harmful than tobacco and an effective tool to stop smoking.” The million never-smokers are the group that argument does not cover. Legislation taking effect in the new year permanently bars tobacco sales to anyone born on or after 1 January 2009, so the smoking line will keep falling by law. Watch whether the vaping line keeps rising with it.