David Waterfield is the Space Director, British American Tobacco, North-Western Europe Space.
Three million individuals.
We’ve heard numerous massive numbers prior to now week, nevertheless it’s this quantity – three million individuals – that stands out most for me.
And it’s excellent information for Britain. The Workplace for Well being Enchancment and Disparities (OHID) revealed on Thursday that there are actually greater than three million vapers in England.
That’s greater than three million individuals who have switched or are switching away from cigarettes.
Almost all of those are present or former people who smoke (fewer than one per cent of English vapers took up vaping with out having first smoked).
OHID check with Smoking Toolkit Examine knowledge that reveals, “amongst grownup people who smoke, vaping merchandise have remained the commonest assist utilized in a give up try since 2013”, with extra people who smoke turning to them than another different to cigarettes.
Most significantly, the report additionally confirmed what English public well being officers have been saying for years: vaping poses solely a small fraction of the dangers of smoking.
Previously, different nicotine merchandise – suppose gums and patches – didn’t sufficiently meet the preferences of people who smoke. Offered with solely these medicalised options to smoking, many people who smoke struggled to give up.
Vaping has opened a world of option to people who smoke. And it seems that, if you give individuals actual selection, many select to change.
Well being officers have embraced vaping as a way to assist individuals give up, and the numbers communicate for themselves.
For the primary time this century, fewer than one in seven English adults smoke. That’s a quantity that places the remainder of Europe to disgrace. Of the 27 EU members, solely Sweden has fared higher.
Nonetheless, final Thursday’s OHID report additionally discovered that just about two thirds of all remaining people who smoke nonetheless consider that vaping is as dangerous as smoking.
That signifies that round six million people who smoke in England don’t know or perceive that higher options, and actual selections, can be found to them.
If England is to satisfy its formidable smoke-free goal, far more work have to be finished to quicken the tempo of individuals switching from cigarettes to vaping.
At BAT, we’re dedicated to constructing A Higher Tomorrow™, one the place people who smoke who would in any other case proceed to smoke change to much less dangerous options*, comparable to vaping.
We hope over the approaching years that our different nicotine merchandise will proceed to assist many extra grownup people who smoke to make the change.
* Based mostly on the burden of proof and assuming an entire change from cigarette smoking. These merchandise usually are not threat free and are addictive.
