Vaping Misconceptions Highlighted In UCL Study

More than half of smokers in England believe the vaping misconception that it is more harmful or as harmful as smoking.

Funded by Cancer Research UK, and led by researchers at University College London, the study collated survey responses from 28,393 smokers in England between 2014 and 2023.

The data showed that vaping misconceptions had increased considerably, with a 12% increase in smokers who believed e-cigarettes were more harmful than smoking. 

In November 2014, 45% of smokers considered vapes less harmful than smoking, which was the most commonly held view at the time; fast forward to June 2023, and only 27% of smokers thought the same. 

The most commonly held view among adult smokers in 2023 was that e-cigarettes were equally as harmful as tobacco smoking, with 34% believing this vaping misconception. 

Combined with 23% of smokers believing vapes to be more harmful, a total of 57% believe vapes to be equally or more harmful than smoking in 2023.

An overall increase in vaping’s perceived harm since 2021 is thought to coincide with the sharp rise in youth vaping.

Lead Author Dr Sarah Jackson, of UCL Institute of Epidemiology & Health Care, said: “These findings have important implications for public health. The risks of vaping are much lower than the risks of smoking and this isn’t being clearly communicated to people.

“This misperception is a health risk in and of itself, as it may discourage smokers from substantially reducing their harm by switching to e-cigarettes. It may also encourage some young people who use e-cigarettes to take up smoking for the first time, if they believe the harms are comparable.

“Better communication about the health risks is needed so that adults who smoke can make informed choices about the nicotine products they use.”

Why have vaping misconceptions increased?

E-cigarettes are relatively new products, and although they have shown to be far less harmful than cigarettes, there are still some unknowns surrounding their long term effects. This means that they tend to receive more news coverage than their tobacco-laden counterparts.

The study showed that vapes were seen as more favourable in public perceptions in 2014, where it is likely that many smokers only saw them as tools for quitting smoking, as they were marketed as such.

This perception sharply declined in late 2019 and early 2020, in which an outbreak of acute lung injuries was wrongly attributed to nicotine vaping, and later proved to be a result of illicit cannabis vaping products containing vitamin E acetate.

Although perception recovered during 2020, the rise of youth vaping from 2021 through to 2023 saw public perceptions plummet, and vaping misconceptions grow.

June 2023 saw 61% of non-vaping smokers believing that e-cigarettes were more harmful or equally as harmful as tobacco products, with only 19% believing that vapes caused less risk.

Why is smoking more harmful than vaping?

15% of all cancer in the UK is caused by smoking. Of the 7000 different chemicals released by burning cigarettes, at least 70 of them can cause cancer.

Smoking also causes other serious illnesses such as lung disease, stroke, and heart disease. In the USA, cigarette smoking is related to about 80% to 90% of lung cancer deaths.

The harmful chemicals in tobacco smoke, such as carbon monoxide and tar, are not found in e-cigarettes.

Instead, vapes contain nicotine, a substance responsible for addiction but not for illness and death.

What is the government doing about vaping and smoking?

The government is banning disposable e-cigarettes, regulating vape flavours and packaging (as of the Tobacco and Vapes Bill), and increasing duty on vape products to make them less attractive to children.

Smoking is to be phased out completely. As according to the government’s ambition for a smokefree generation, no tobacco products will legally be allowed to be sold to anyone born since 2009. 

However, the rise of vaping misconceptions is still a concern.

Professor Jamie Brown (UCL Institute of Epidemiology & Health Care) said: “E-cigarettes are novel and so have attracted much attention in the media, with news articles often overstating their risks to health compared with smoking. There is relatively little reporting about deaths caused by smoking, even though 75,000 people die as a result of it in England each year.

“The Government plans to offer one million smokers a free vaping starter kit alongside behavioural support to help them quit. This initiative may be undermined if many smokers are unwilling to try e-cigarettes because they wrongly believe them to be just as harmful as cigarettes or more so.”

Summary

The uncertainty surrounding e-cigarettes contributes vastly to their public perception. Studies over the past decade have shown they are an incredibly effective means of smoking cessation, yet their long term effects are unknown and they pose a significant risk in the hands of non-smokers.

There are no unknowns regarding smoking tobacco. The worldwide consensus of its effects on health have been damning ever since researchers first proved a correlation between smoking and cancer in the 1950’s.

However, because the smoking consensus is so categorically negative, and has been for over 70 years, its newsworthiness is low. It is an ingrained activity in society that people either choose to do, or choose not to do.

Vaping is relatively new, and still provides enough unknowns to generate media frenzies when problems are attributed to it. 

It is in these media frenzies that people seem to forget the destruction that smoking causes, and how e-cigarettes are in fact a very viable solution in helping smokers quit.

E-cigarettes are all too often seen as having no place in society. When viewed in correlation with the dangers of smoking, the true place of vaping becomes obvious.