Vaping: what you need to know

• Using a nicotine vape is much less harmful than smoking in the short and medium term. However, vapes are not risk-free and their long-term health impact is unknown – though they are likely to be far less harmful than smoking.
• Vapes are an effective stop smoking aid. Nearly 3 million adults in Britain quit smoking with a vape in the last 5 years.
• Regulation is needed to reduce the appeal of vapes to children and crack down on sales of illegal vapes.
• Vaping is useful for people who need to quit smoking. But if you don’t smoke, don’t vape.

The information on this page relates to legal vaping products – ones that are registered with the UK Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Authority (MHRA). Illegal vapes may contain banned ingredients often exceed restrictions on nicotine content. People who want to quit smoking using a vape are advised to only use legal, regulated products from a reputable retailer.

“If you smoke, vaping is much safer; if you don’t smoke, don’t vape; marketing vapes to children is utterly unacceptable.”

– Professor Sir Chris Whitty, Chief Medical Officer for England

• What are vapes and how do they work?
• How many people in Britain vape?
• What about youth vaping?
• Can vaping help people quit smoking?
• What are the health effects of vaping?
• What about secondhand (passive) vaping?
• Will the Tobacco and Vapes Bill impact people who vape?
• What about illicit vapes?

Vapes (also known as electronic cigarettes or e-cigarettes) allow users to inhale nicotine through an aerosol commonly referred to as vapour, rather than smoke.

They work by heating a solution known as an e-liquid that typically contains nicotine, flavourings, propylene glycol and vegetable glycerine (the base liquids that carry nicotine and flavourings and create the vapour when heated).

Although vapes contain nicotine – which can be addictive – they don’t contain or burn tobacco and don’t produce the most harmful chemicals in tobacco smoke, like tar and carbon monoxide. While they are not risk free, they are significantly less harmful than smoking and are effective for helping adults who smoke to quit.

11% of adults in Great Britain currently vape (5.6 million people).

Over half (53%) of current vapers are ex-smokers, while four in ten (39%) are dual users (both vape and smoke). Only 8% of current vapers have never smoked.

The top two reasons people give for vaping are to help them quit smoking (20%) followed by preventing relapse to smoking (15%).

These findings are from the annual ASH/YouGov survey of vaping behaviour among adults in Great Britain. The full survey findings are available in the ASH fact sheet: Use of vapes (e-cigarettes) among adults in Great Britain. 2024.

Vapes are an adult stop smoking aid and should not be used by children. It is illegal to sell nicotine-containing vapes to under-18s.

7.2% of 11–17-year-olds in Britain currently vape. This is made up of 4.2% who vape regularly (more than once a week) and 3% who vape occasionally (less than once a week). Overall, 18% of 11–17-year-olds have tried vaping.

Youth vaping rates have stabilised after increasing sharply between 2021 and 2023. This increase was likely driven by the emergence of cheap, disposable vapes which are heavily marketed towards young people.

These findings are from the annual ASH/YouGov survey of vaping behaviour among 11–17-year-olds in Great Britain. The full survey findings are available in the ASH fact sheet: Use of vapes (e-cigarettes) among young people in Great Britain. 2024.

For more information, see the ASH page on youth vaping.

Yes. A major systematic review concluded that people using nicotine-containing vapes are almost twice as likely to successfully quit smoking than those using other nicotine replacement products, like patches or gum.

Vaping is recommended as a stop smoking aid by the NHS and the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE).

Vapes are currently the most popular stop smoking aid in Great Britain. ASH’s annual survey of vaping in Britain found that nearly 3 million adults (2.7 million) quit smoking with a vape in the last 5 years.

Most stop smoking services in England can provide advice about using a vape to quit smoking and many will be able to offer free vapes to those making a quit attempt. The government in England is running a national ‘swap to stop’ scheme to support smokers to quit using a vape.

A major evidence review published by the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities in 2022 concluded that vaping poses a small fraction of the risks of smoking in the short and medium term. However, it is not risk-free, particularly for people who have never smoked. The long-term health impacts are currently unknown, although they are likely to be far less harmful than smoking.

The same review found that people who vape are exposed to significantly lower levels of harmful substances linked to cancer, respiratory and cardiovascular conditions than people who smoke.

A 2024 evidence review published by the Royal College of Physicians concluded that there is “clear evidence that e-cigarettes cause less harm to health than combustible tobacco.”

Public understanding of the health effects of vaping is poor and getting worse, partly due to media reporting which overemphasises the potential risks of vaping and repeats common misconceptions. ASH survey data shows that half of British adults – including half of all those who smoke – believe that vaping is as or more harmful than smoking, when it is actually much less harmful. This makes it less likely that people who smoke will try using a vape to help them quit.

For more information see the ASH mythbuster: Addressing common myths about vaping: Putting the evidence in context.

Current evidence suggests that short term exposure to e-cigarette vapour is not harmful to health, although it is possible that regular exposure to people vaping indoors for long periods of time carries some low-level risk. Any potential risks from passive vaping are likely to be significantly lower than the proven harms from passive smoking.

The Tobacco and Vapes Bill includes new measures designed to reduce the appeal of vapes to children while ensuring vapes remain available to help adults quit smoking. This includes:

• Restrictions on vape flavours, packaging and promotion in shops.
• A retail licencing scheme for shops selling vapes.
• A ban on vape advertising and sponsorship.
• A ban on vape vending machines.

For more information, see the ASH page on the Tobacco and Vapes Bill.

This is alongside a ban on disposable (single-use) vapes in June 2025 and a new tax on vape liquid in October 2026.

To be sold legally in the UK, nicotine-containing vapes and refill containers have to meet minimum standards for safety and quality and be notified with the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA). They are not allowed to include ingredients which pose a risk to human health in heated or unheated form, and the maximum nicotine strength is limited to 20mg/ml. Chemicals which are prohibited in UK vapes include diacetyl, which has been linked to a rare condition known as popcorn lung (bronchiolitis obliterans) – there are no confirmed cases of popcorn lung linked to vaping – and vitamin E acetate. More information can be found on the MHRA website. Any vapes which have not been notified to the MHRA are on sale illegally in the UK.

Illegal vapes may contain banned ingredients and often exceed restrictions on nicotine content. People who want to quit smoking using a vape are advised to only use legal, regulated products.-

To check if a vaping product is legal or not, search the MHRA’s online register: https://cms.mhra.gov.uk/ecig-new

Any e-cigarette or refill not on the MHRA register cannot legally be sold in the UK.

• ASH factsheet: Use of vapes (e-cigarettes) among adults in Great Britain. 2024
• ASH mythbuster: Addressing common myths about vaping: Putting the evidence in context
• Smoking Toolkit Study data on smoking and vaping rates in England, Scotland and Wales
• ONS data on adult smoking and vaping habits in the UK