The number of adults vaping in England who have never regularly smoked has rocketed since 2021 when the availability of disposable devices boomed, according to a study by UCL researchers.
The new research – published in Lancet Public Health and funded by Cancer Research UK – estimates that as of April this year, around one million adults in England who had never regularly smoked before now vape, most of them on a daily basis.
That represents a sevenfold increase since 2021 – the rise “largely driven by young adults” the study found.
Public Health charity ASH said the findings “could be a cause for concern”.
“While it may be diverting some people from smoking, which is to be welcomed, it may also be leading some people to start using nicotine which is addictive,” said ASH CEO Hazel Cheeseman.
The study – which scrutinised survey data collected between 2016 and 2024 from more than 150,000 adults in England, of whom 94,000 had never previously smoked tobacco or a regular basis – found that 3.5% now vaped regularly.
Prior to 2021 only around 0.5% did so – but that was before the phenomenal rise of throwaway vapes, which helped the vaping category more than double its value in 2022 to £793.2m. The growth was largely driven by disposable brands like ElfBar, Lost Mary and SKE, which secured major supermarket and convenience store listings.
“The profile of vapers who had never regularly smoked had changed since disposable e-cigarettes became popular,” the researchers said. “In recent years, these vapers tended to be younger, more were women, and more were drinking at increasing or higher-risk levels.”
These vapers were also more likely to use disposable devices; the highest-strength nicotine e-liquids; and to buy their vaping products from supermarkets and convenience stores.
An estimated one in seven 18 to 24-year-olds (14%) who never regularly smoked now use e-cigarettes – a rise the researchers blamed squarely on disposable vapes.
Judging how big a worry the findings are “will depend on what these people would otherwise be doing” said the study’s lead author Dr Sarah Jackson.
“It is likely that some would have smoked if vaping were not an available option. In this case, vaping is clearly less harmful. However, for those who would not have gone on to smoke, vaping regularly over a sustained period poses more risk than not vaping,” she said.
The study’s publication follows the release yesterday of new ONS data which shows around 2.8% of UK over-16s who had never smoked now use a vape daily or occasionally.
The number of people who had never smoked but reported using a vape daily doubled to 1.2% between 2022 and 2023, according to the ONS figures.
Overall, people aged 16 to 24 years were more likely to vape than any other age group, but usage had increased most substantially in the period among people aged 25 to 34 years.
Despite the increase in vaping among people without a smoking history, the UCL researchers found that, among the adult population in England overall, the rise in vaping had “levelled off” since early 2023.
“[The UCL study findings] are a reminder that action is required to try to minimise vaping among young people who have never previously smoked,” said the paper’s senior author Professor Jamie Brown. “However, a balancing act is required to avoid deterring smokers from using e-cigarettes to quit.
“A sensible next step would be to introduce stricter regulation around product appearance, packaging and marketing, as those are less likely to reduce the effectiveness of e-cigarettes for smoking cessation – unlike, for instance, flavour bans,” he added.
The previous Conservative government introduced the Tobacco and Vapes Bill which proposed to potentially ban disposable vapes, regulate packaging and point of sale displays for vaping products, and restrict flavours.
In the 2024 King’s Speech the new Labour government announced it would introduce a tobacco and vapes bill, coming after the party’s manifesto pledge to ban vapes from being branded and advertised to appeal to children to “stop the next generation from becoming hooked on nicotine”.
The government has also said it is “actively considering” the inclusion of a vape retailer licensing scheme in the bill.
The vaping sector has been broadly supportive of most elements of the coming bill, but has strongly objected to flavour bans. Trade association the UKVIA said “having a ban on flavours could have a negative impact on those who are attempting to quit” citing research it commissioned by OnePoll that a third of vapers said a flavour ban “will lead them back to cigarettes”. Some 83% of vapers surveyed said flavours had helped them quit smoking.
“The most effective way to limit the use of vapes in non-smokers is to reduce their appeal,” said Cheeseman. “The aggressive marketing of products to young people means the government urgently needs to bring back the Tobacco and Vapes Bill to regulate vape flavours, marketing and branding. Until the bill is passed into law, the government cannot take the action needed to curb vaping among children and never-smokers.”
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