There were an estimated 2.4m e-cigarette users, representing around 5% of adults, in 2016.7 Around two million people in England are thought to have used e-cigarettes to completely give up smoking tobacco products. A further 470,000 were using them as an aid to stop smoking.1 Scottish Health Survey data also indicates uptake is increasing in Scotland, from 5% of all adults having reported currently using an e-cigarette in 2014 to 7% in 2015.8
Two thirds of smokers are reckoned to want to give up smoking. Despite the availability of effective medicines and treatments to help quitters, the majority try to give up by going 'cold turkey', the least effective method of quitting.1

For those who do seek support, €smokers who use a combination of medication and expert behavioural support are up to four times as likely to stop smoking successfully as those who attempt to quit unaided or with over-the-counter nicotine replacement therapy,€ says the tobacco control plan.

A US study of over 24,000 smokers published at the end of August offers further support for e-cigarettes in smoking cessation. €Both quit attempts and quit success were positively associated with increased frequency of e-cigarette use,€ the researchers found.

E-cigarettes in the tobacco control plan
The tobacco control plan says: €The best thing a smoker can do for their health is to quit smoking. However, the evidence is increasingly clear that e-cigarettes are significantly less harmful to health than smoking tobacco.€1

However, rather than giving blanket approval to e-cigarettes, the government will €evaluate whether products such as novel tobacco products have a role to play in reducing the risk of harm to smokers.€ It will also €continue to evaluate critically the evidence on nicotine delivery products,€ and publish information about short and long-term benefits and risks for smokers, vapers, and non-users.1

To this end, PHE will include messages about the relative safety of e-cigarettes within quit smoking campaigns. It will also provide €evidence based guidance for health professionals to support them in advising smokers who want to use e-cigarettes or other nicotine delivery systems to quit.€1