The latest Action on Smoking and Health (ASH )youth vaping fact sheet, which was just published, shows current vaping among 18-year-olds has fallen steadily for three consecutive years, from 20% to 15%.
It also shows it has fallen for two years in the 16-17 age group - from 15% to 12%. While the figures for 11–15-year-olds remains at a plateau of 5%, the Independent British Vape Trade Association (IBVTA) believe it is likely to reduce due to the recently imposed disposable vape ban.
The IBVTA adds it is not quite ready for any celebrations, but remain “cautiously optimistic that youth vaping in the UK will never reach the proportions seen in the US in 2019-20.”
However, it goes on to say it has concerns about the increasing misperceptions of comparative harm. In 2013 only 13% of youths held the incorrect belief that vapes were about the same or more harmful than smoking.
Yet this number has grown steadily almost every year since, with 63% of 11–17-year-olds now thinking smoking might be no worse for them than vaping. The IBVTA believes this misperception could be responsible for an increase in experimentation with smoking.
The ASH fact sheet also shows that young people who’ve tried smoking a cigarette now outnumber those that have tried vaping. In the 11–17 age group, a concerning 20% may have tried vaping. However, an even larger 21% have tried smoking. This is the highest in ASH’s youth vaping fact sheet record, which stretches back to 2013.
Even more worryingly, the number of youths that have never smoked, but intend to try a cigarette soon, has more than doubled in the last year. With this figure going from 0.9% to 2.0%, the number of current 11–17-year-olds that have tried smoking will doubtless increase.
CEO of the IBVTA, Gillian Golden (left), said: “Most people now believe, quite incorrectly, that vaping is as harmful as smoking, if not more so. A relentless negative media narrative has driven this unfounded belief, and unfortunately it is now backfiring.
“Young people are trying smoking in greater numbers now than they were more than 10 years ago. It’s surely time to remind everyone that while vaping is very much safer, smoking kills, and no young person should ever experiment with it.
“The IBVTA remains committed to requiring that all its members operate strict age verification protocols, and that vapes should only be for adults that would otherwise be smoking.”
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