The rise of vaping Easy to start but difficult to stop

More socially acceptable than smoking - yet just as addictive - vaping has become the UK's default way of consuming nicotine.

- Linda Geddes

Figures published by the Office for National Statistics last month showed that the number of over-16s in Great Britain who use vapes or e-cigarettes has overtaken the number who smoke cigarettes for the first time, with 5.4 million adults now vaping daily or occasionally, compared with 4.9 million who smoke.

But alongside this shift is a growing sense of disquiet. Many people who vape say they want to stop, or at least cut down, and are discovering that it is harder than they expected. Some are even considering returning to smoking cigarettes, which for all their dangers, were harder to puff mindlessly at a desk or to conceal from those around them.

Confusion about risk may be compounding the problem. Some public health experts worry that the risks of vaping may have been overstated and that this could be inadvertently encouraging a new generation of smokers.

Data released in September by the charity Action on Smoking and Health (Ash) found that 63% of young people now believe vaping is as harmful as, or more harmful than, smoking, despite decades of evidence showing cigarettes remain far more dangerous.

So, if you want to quit vaping - or do it less - what does the evidence say about what actually works?

At first glance, vaping and smoking can feel similar: both deliver nicotine, both involve inhalation and both can become deeply habitual. But public health experts are unequivocal that they sit in very different risk categories.

"We can be absolutely confident that vaping is far less harmful than smoking," said Martin Dockrell, the recently retired tobacco evidence lead at the UK's Office for Health Improvement and Disparities.

"They really aren't comparable, and people who say they are are either misinformed, or perhaps kind of wilfully trying to give a false impression."