Great Britain: The sharp increase in vaping among young people raises questions about the English strategy to quit smoking

A recent study published in the journal Addiction[1] showed that the use of disposable e-cigarettes increased sharply between 2021 and 2022 in Britain – with the fastest growth seen among young adults (aged 18), mirroring trends seen among US teenagers.

The study surveyed 36,876 adults (18+) between January 2021 and April 2022 through the Smoking Toolkit Study, a monthly cross-sectional survey that interviews a nationally representative sample of adults in Great Britain. They were asked whether they used a nicotine product (manufactured cigarette, roll-your-own cigarette, shisha, pipe, cigarillos/cigars or vaping products).

Smoking declines among adults overall, vaping rises

The proportion of adults reporting smoking tobacco decreased from 15.2% in January 2021 to 14.5% in April 2022, with a larger decrease among young adults, from 24.5% to 19.5% among those aged 18 and from 22.7% to 19.9% among those aged 25.

Regarding the consumption of vaping products, it increased slightly among all adults over this period (from 7 to 8.2%) with a more significant increase among young adults aged 18 and 25 (11.3 to 17.7% among 18 year olds and 10.7% to 15.2% among 25 year olds).

Sharp rise in disposable e-cigarette consumption, especially among young adults

From January 2021 to April 2022, the total percentage of smokers and/or vapers using disposable vaping products increased 18-fold, from 1.2 to 22.2 %.

The growth in disposable e-cigarette use was more pronounced among younger participants. For example, the prevalence among 45-year-old smokers/vapers increased from 2.1 to 10 %, while among 18-year-old smokers/vapers it increased from 0.4 to 54.8 % over the study period, a 137-fold increase.

Most disposable e-cigarette users are vape smokers (71.6% of them), 18.8% of them are former smokers and almost one in 10 (9.6% of them) said they had never smoked.

Concerns over rise in vaping among teens and young adults

Britain has included the use of e-cigarettes as a cessation tool in its ambition to achieve a tobacco-free generation by 2030. However, this policy is not unanimous and several experts question it.[2]-[3] this strategy and are concerned about the increase in consumption of vaping products, driven by disposable electronic cigarettes[4], with adolescents and young adults.

While smoking rates among adolescents are historically low, due in part to the implementation of comprehensive and coherent anti-smoking policies, recent studies point to the increase in the use of disposable e-cigarettes among adolescents who have never smoked before. study led by a team from the TobaccoFree Research Institute Ireland[5] revealed that in Ireland, the majority of adolescents (68%) who had tried an e-cigarette at least once in Ireland had never been smokers before. According to the same study, the main reasons given by adolescents for starting to use e-cigarettes were curiosity (66 %) and the fact that their friends were vaping (29 %). Only 3 % said it was to quit smoking.

Keywords: Britain, vaping, disposable e-cigarettes, young adults

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[1] Harry Tattan-Birch, Sarah E. Jackson, Loren Kock, Martin Dockrell, Jamie Brown, Rapid growth in disposable e-cigarette vaping among young adults in Great Britain from 2021 to 2022: a repeat cross-sectional survey, Addiction, published on 6 September 2022, https://doi.org/10.1111/add.16044

[2] Cox D, E-cigarettes are not part of the solution to a tobacco free Ireland, The Journal, published July 30, 2022, accessed September 20, 2022.

[3] Tobacco-free generation, Great Britain: the number of vapers has increased fivefold in ten years, published September 8, 2022, accessed September 20, 2022

[4] Fears of growth in children vaping disposables backed up by new national survey, ASH UK, published 7 July 2022, accessed 29 August 2022.

[5] Press release, Teenagers more likely to vape if their parents smoke, European lung foundation, published on September 3, 2022, accessed on September 20, 2022