Sharp rise in vaping among young adult non-smokers: The number of adults in England to have started vaping despite never having been regular smokers has reached one million. This is mostly young adults, with about 1 in 7 18-24-year-olds who never regularly smoked now using e-cigarettes.

I’ve linked to the news release in the post above. In this comment, for those interested, here’s the link to the peer reviewed journal article:

https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanpub/article/PIIS2468-2667(24)00183-X/fulltext

From the linked article:

Sharp rise in vaping among young adult non-smokers

The number of adults in England to have started vaping despite never having been regular smokers has reached one million, scientists estimate.

This is a sharp increase on 2020, with disposable vapes having been available since 2021.

The rise is driven mostly by young adults – with about one out of every seven 18-24-year-olds who never regularly smoked now using e-cigarettes.

While some may have benefited by taking up vapes instead of traditional cigarettes – the trend could be worrying, experts say.

Lead researcher, Dr Sarah Jackson, at University College London (UCL), said the public-health impact of the “substantial rise” in vaping among people who have never regularly smoked depended on what they would otherwise be doing.

“It is likely that some would have smoked if vaping were not an available option,” she said.

“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.”

I recently visited England from Australia and was shocked at the prevalence of vaping and especially stores. It seemed like every 5th shop was selling something vape related.

Vaping is an extremely hard habit to kick. I used to buy a vape, throw it away then go looking for it thirty minutes later. It was ridiculous. Nicotine is addictive as hell.

Big Nicotine never loses.