Study Shows Only 2% of E-Cigarette Users Have Never Smoked

According to Vapingpost, a survey commissioned by the UK’s smoke-free advocacy group Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) and conducted by YouGov is consistent with previous findings, showing that e-cigarettes are one pathway away from smoking.

Survey findings show:

For the first time, current e-cigarette use has fallen year on year, dropping from 7.1% to 6.3% among the UK adult population (3.2 million people).

More than half (58.9%) of current e-cigarette users are former smokers, a figure that has risen year by year. Meanwhile, the share of users who vape and smoke cigarettes at the same time (known as dual users) fell to 38.3% in 2020.

From 2010 to 2014, the proportion of adult smokers who had never tried an e-cigarette fell rapidly, and continued to decline from 2015 to 2020, reaching 32.4%.

Only 0.3% of never-smokers are current e-cigarette users (equivalent to 2.9% of smokers), down from 0.8% in 2019.

The survey also showed that only 2% of e-cigarette users have never smoked, and 60% of adult vapers believe health is the main reason for vaping.

Michael Landle, head of the World Vapers' Alliance, pointed out that these results once again show that vaping is an effective way to move away from smoking.

In line with this, an article published earlier this year in Australia titled “Does the gateway theory justify the nicotine vape ban in Australia?” also debunked the misleading gateway theory of cigarette use, a major and regrettable argument used by local authorities to justify bans on nicotine vaping products.

Commentary authors Colin Mendelsohn and Wayne Hall noted that a more plausible explanation for why young people who vape cannabis are more likely to smoke is personality factors. This means that teens who use cannabis are risk-takers, and therefore are also more likely to smoke, drink alcohol, use cannabis and other substances, and engage in unprotected sex. This argument has been highlighted by other experts in multiple studies.