In a recent study published on March 2020 by Public Health England’s (PHE) 6th independent e cigarette report that was commissioned from researchers at King’s College London, new findings have emerged which are in tandem with the previous findings by PHE.

One of the findings suggests that over 50% of smokers think that vaping products that contain nicotine are either equally or even more harmful than smoking combustible cigarettes. This is despite the fact that the US vaping scare (which mainly happened in autumn of 2019) and deaths are attributed to vaping of substances that are banned in UK, and not because of nicotine vaping.

PHE in continues to advice what it had advised earlier, which is that adult smokers should switch to e cigarettes or vapes, however non-smokers should not start vaping or consuming e cigarettes. This is because e cigarettes are not 100% safe, a fact that is commonly known and agreed to by all stakeholders. However, PHE is also concerned about an increasing number of adult smokers are now beginning to believe that vaping is more harmful than smoking, a fact that PHE says is not true.

In fact, authorities in USA have recently confirmed that the main cause of the USA illness outbreak was vitamin E Acetate, which is a thickening agent added in cannabis vaping products (and not nicotine vaping products). Vitamin E Acetate is not permitted in UK where nicotine vaping products are regulated by the government, and hence the UK government has good control as to what is permitted and what is not. The report has also indicated that any ban on flavoured e liquids or e juice may actually deter adult smokers from switching completely to electronic cigarettes.

This research has also scrutinised the current information on effects of vaping among pregnant women and has concluded that even more research needs to be done in this area. As of current information and knowledge, vaping is not for pregnant or breastfeeding women.