Action on Smoking and Health (UK)’s Post

📢 What do we know about vaping in adults and teens? ASH's NEW data is now published. The estimated overall proportion of people who vape in Great Britain has stalled in the last year at 10% among adults and 7% in 11–17-year-olds. This indicates a worrying lack of progress in reducing use among children, as well as a potential underuse of vapes for smoking cessation, amid soaring risk misperceptions. 📈 Vaping prevalence among adults remains at 10.4%, unchanged since 2024, suggesting the growth in uptake has stalled. 📈 7.6% of adults now vape daily, up from 4.5% in 2020. 📈 Among 11–17-year-olds, 20% have tried vaping (an estimated 1.1 million, 7% currently vape (400k) with 3% saying they vape daily (160k). These figures are similar to 2024 data. More worrying is the public confusion about risks of vaping, relative to smoking. 56% of adults and 63% of young people now wrongly believe vaping is as harmful or more harmful than smoking. This is a significant rise from 2024 when 50% of adults and 58% of young people believed this. What next? ASH is calling for: 1️⃣ Immediate scheduling of the Committee Stage to unlock regulatory powers to reduce youth vaping. 2️⃣ Swift implementation of new measures following Royal Assent, including: - Banning brightly coloured vape packaging and flavour descriptors. - Restricting vape advertising, point-of-sale displays, and marketing strategies targeting youth. 3️⃣ A strong communications strategy to: - Reinforce the greater harms of smoking over vaping. - Encourage smokers to switch. - Support initiatives like the Swap to Stop programme to maximise quit success.