Harm Perceptions of E-Cigarettes Compared With Cigarettes
Knowledge•Action•Change (2020)- Burning Issues: The Global State of Tobacco Harm Reduction 2020
Even in the UK, where the government and public health authorities have taken a world-leading pragmatic approach to tobacco harm reduction and publicised support for switching, the proportion of smokers believing that smoking and vaping are equally harmful has increased from 28% in the last quarter of 2014 to over 52% in the first quarter of 2020. In the first quarter of 2020, a further 21% said that vaping was more harmful than smoking. This means most smokers believe that vaping is as harmful or more harmful than smoking. To quote the latest Public Health England report on vaping in England: “It is of concern that negative beliefs about the harms from vaping might prevent smokers from switching to vaping and they would therefore continue to be exposed to the extremely high levels of harm caused by smoking.”
See also p.98 of the report: Burning Issues: The Global State of Tobacco Harm Reduction 2020
