According to the latest survey data from Action on Smoking and Health (hereinafter referred to as ASH), a large proportion of smokers have misconceptions about e-cigarettes, thinking that they are as harmful as cigarettes, or even more harmful.

The data showed that “of the 1.8 million smokers in the UK who have not yet tried e-cigarettes, 43% believe that e-cigarettes are as harmful as cigarettes, or even more harmful than cigarettes, which is up from 27% in 2019.” The report also shows , "Among the 2.9 million cigarette smokers who had tried e-cigarettes but stopped, 44% believed e-cigarettes were as harmful as or more harmful than cigarettes, up from 25% in 2019."

With a high proportion of misunderstandings, ASH believes that the UK smoking cessation program is "threatened by growing concerns among smokers that vaping carries the same or higher risks than cigarettes."

"Government supports vaping strategies as a way to reduce smoking rates, but this approach will be undermined if smokers do not try vaping due to safety concerns or stop vaping prematurely and return to cigarette smoking." ASH deputy chief executive Officer Hazel Cheeseman said: "The UK government must act quickly to raise public awareness that the risks posed by vaping are only a fraction of the risks of smoking."

Groups such as the Independent European Vaping Alliance (IEVA) and the UK Vaping Industry Association (UKVIA) support ASH's stance on government action.

UKVIA Director-General John Dunne said: "It is clear that smokers lack understanding of the relative risks of smoking and vaping, and this is a public health problem that governments can no longer ignore. The ASH report highlights the massive media coverage of vaping Misleading and inaccurate headlines have had a huge impact on public perception, discouraging smokers from switching to less harmful alternatives to cigarettes.

"The public needs to know that many of the horror stories often reported in the media are simply not true, and we urgently need an antidote to this devastating misinformation.

"The industry is not allowed to make health claims about the relative harms of smoking and vaping, but keeping the public in the dark means hundreds of smokers in the UK are still dying needlessly every day because they don't have the information. We must Allowed to set the record straight, the UK government should launch a national public awareness campaign to accurately communicate the relative risks of smoking and vaping."