UK Survey Shows Public Views on Vaping Remain Divided
Despite fear sparked by EVALI in the US and concerns about youth vaping, UK health bodies fully support vaping as a smoking cessation tool and continue urging smokers to switch.
Although panic and concerns about vaping triggered by the EVALI outbreak have spread across the United States, and worries about youth vaping continue, the UK health and medical authorities, including the NHS and Public Health England, have fully endorsed vaping as a smoking cessation method and continue to urge smokers to switch to vaping.
Sadly, this positive stance has still not fully taken hold among the British public as expected. The survey aimed to determine the views of the UK public on using vaping as a smoking cessation tool, and whether they believe vaping has public health benefits.
The compiled data showed that the majority of respondents (34.9%) did not think vaping is beneficial to public health, while 26% said they were unsure. On the other hand, 24.1% believed vaping could potentially benefit public health, and only 15% thought vaping is beneficial to health.
When asked about the fear-based narrative about vaping in the US, the majority of participants (40.4%) said they had no opinion because they did not have enough information. More than one-third (35%) of respondents said they were concerned about deaths related to EVALI.
One quarter (24.4%) of respondents said they were "not at all" affected by the vaping panic in the US, while about one-third (31.2%) said they believed that all concerns surrounding vaping could have been driven by media hype, and 14.6% said it was absolutely unfounded. About 22.2% believed the media coverage was accurate, while 32% said they did not know.
Many would discourage smokers from switching to vaping
When asked whether they would encourage smokers they know to switch to vaping to quit smoking, nearly half (48.9%) said they would be unwilling, 31.5% said they probably would, and 19.6% said definitely. Respondents were also asked whether they believed smoking could help the UK achieve the government’s smoke-free target by 2030. A total of 42.7% thought not, 17.2% thought smoking might help, and 11.2% agreed it would help.
After reviewing the compiled data, the researchers concluded that media headlines have had a very negative impact on the public. "Our survey shows that most people are confused by negative media coverage, while at the same time they do not trust these news reports, especially the sensationalist tabloids," said Pascal Culverhouse, managing director of ECigIntelligence.
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