The majority of UK smokers mistakenly believe that vaping is as harmful as smoking, experts have revealed. science

More than half of British adult smokers mistakenly believe e-cigarettes are as harmful or more harmful than cigarettes, making them less likely to switch to vaping or quit their deadly habit, a study has found.

Evidence from scientific research shows that while vaping is not completely risk-free, it is much less harmful than smoking cigarettes, which produces thousands of chemicals, including toxic metals, toxic gases and substances that cause cancer.

Analysis by Action on Smoking and Health (Ash) found that public understanding of vaping has plummeted over the past decade, with some people attempting to quit vaping by switching to cigarettes.

“It’s worrying that public perception of vaping is so disconnected from the evidence,” said Hazel Cheeseman, CEO of Ash. One factor driving this trend is that studies looking for potential risks from vaping are widely reported in the media without addressing the actual harms associated with smoking.

“For smokers, this misconception has real consequences: People who believe that e-cigarettes are as harmful as smoking are less likely to use e-cigarettes to quit smoking and are more likely to quit vaping and return to smoking, both of which are much worse for their health,” Cheeseman said.

A major review of vaping by King’s College London found that e-cigarettes carry a fraction of the risks of smoking cigarettes and that vapers are much less exposed to harmful substances.

Ash commissioned YouGov to collect data for the 2026 Smokefree GB survey of more than 13,000 adults, weighted to be representative of the population. According to the analysis, 54% of UK adults and 52% of smokers believe vaping is as harmful or more harmful than smoking, with this figure rising to 61% among smokers who have never tried vaping. Less than a third of smokers accurately believed that e-cigarettes were less harmful than smoking.

Survey Response GraphThis graph shows the majority of people who believe vaping is as bad or worse than smoking.

Just a decade ago, only a quarter of British adults thought vapes were as harmful or more harmful than cigarettes. Surprisingly, nearly a fifth of people who chose a strategy to quit vaping also used cigarettes, the survey found.

“This is a depressing situation,” said Professor Jamie Brown, director of UCL’s Tobacco and Alcohol Research Group. “Two out of three smokers will die from smoking-related diseases if they do not quit, so this is a very urgent public health issue. We know that e-cigarettes are a very effective way to help smokers quit, so it is important to correct these misconceptions.”

Brown said the reasons for the misperception are difficult to disentangle, but pointed out that numerous scientific studies have reported the potential health risks of vapes without comparing them to the risks posed by smoking. These studies are often widely reported in the media. “The bottom line is that people have seen a lot of news stories over the last 10 to 15 years that have focused on the harms of e-cigarettes without putting into context how bad cigarettes are,” he said.

Professor Peter Hajek, director of the Institute of Healthy Lifestyles at Queen Mary University of London, said misconceptions about vapes were preventing smokers from switching and “closing the door to a relatively easy escape from the deadly habit”. He said some anti-smoking advocates seem to have an unethical belief that exaggerating the harms of vapes is justified because it serves a good cause.

Ministers are implementing new restrictions on vaping products and preparing further regulations through the Tobacco and Vapes Bill.

Alizée Froguel, prevention policy manager at Cancer Research UK, said: “There is no hard evidence that vaping causes cancer. The evidence to date shows that legal vapes are far less harmful than cigarettes and other tobacco products and are an effective smoking cessation tool. However, because we do not know the long-term effects, they cannot be considered risk-free and should not be used by children and people who have never smoked.”

“It is right for the UK Government to take action to reduce the appeal and availability of vapes to young people and protect them from the devastating harms of tobacco. At the same time, it is vital that we ensure vapes are accessible to the millions of people in the UK who still smoke and need support to quit.”

Cheeseman said a much more consistent public health strategy is needed to reduce youth vaping and ensure adult smokers know the health benefits of switching to vaping.

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