Dorset Promotes Swapping
Public Health Dorset has pushed vaping as part of its quit tobacco advice as part of No Smoking Day and University Hospitals Dorset announced vaping is allowed as part of its smoke-free policy
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by Dave Cross
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Public Health Dorset has pushed the vaping Swap2Stop free vape giveaway programme as part of its quit tobacco advice given out to smokers on No Smoking Day. In related matters, University Hospitals Dorset is also promoting vaping as it announced its new smoke-free policy, where all smoking will be banned but vaping will be allowed.
University Hospitals Dorset says it has now implemented a smoke-free policy across all its sites, effective from No Smoking Day on 12th March 2025.
The ban covers smoking in all areas such as entrances, car parks, and outdoor spaces at the Royal Bournemouth, Poole, and Christchurch hospitals, as well as other trust locations across Dorset.
University Hospitals Dorset adds that vapers need to remain at least three metres away from doors and windows.
For its part, Public Health Dorset used No Smoking Day to launch its new Swap2 Stop programme. The Swap 2 Stop scheme is part of a government-funded programme, encouraging adult smokers to switch from smoking to vaping by providing them with a free starter kit and eliquids.
Public Health Dorset says vaping “is much less harmful to health.”
Dorset residents can apply for a voucher for the free vape starter kit from the Livewell Dorset website.
Sam Crowe, Director of Public Health at Dorset Council and BCP Council, said: “The health advice on vaping is clear. If you smoke, vaping is much safer, but it isn’t entirely risk-free, so if you don’t smoke, don’t vape. Thanks to national funding, we can offer people who smoke the chance to make a positive choice for their health by switching from smoking to vaping, alongside our existing range of stop-smoking services in the county.
“Smoking remains the single biggest cause of preventable death in the UK, it kills up to two out of three long-term users and around 64,000 people each year. Whilst nicotine is the addictive substance in cigarettes, almost all of the harm from smoking comes from the toxic chemicals in tobacco smoke, the vast majority of which are not present in vapes.
“People who do switch should eventually look to quit vaping too once they’re sure they won’t return to smoking, which we know poses a far greater risk to health. You can get advice on this from NHS Better Health, your pharmacist or LiveWell Dorset.”
Smoking led to more than 3,000 deaths in Dorset between 2017 and 2019. Public Health Dorset says it is working with local health partners to reach the government’s ambition to be smokefree by 2030.
Heidi Croucher, Dorset’s Treating Tobacco Dependency Programme Manager, added: “The evidence shows vaping exposes people to a fraction of the harmful chemicals produced by tobacco smoke. These are the chemicals that cause serious illness including cancer, heart disease, lung disease, stroke and dementia.
“Nicotine has been used safely for decades in nicotine replacement therapy, such as patches and gums, and vaping is another way for smokers to get nicotine without the harm from tobacco smoke. It’s also been proven that vaping is a highly effective way to quit smoking, so we’d encourage any adult who smokes to give it a go, even if you’ve tried to quit before.”
References:
- Public Health Dorset’s facts about vaping - publichealthdorset.org.uk/vaping-facts.
Photo Credit:
Images from Public Health Dorset
Dave Cross
Journalist at POTVDave is a freelance writer; with articles on music, motorbikes, football, pop-science, vaping and tobacco harm reduction in Sounds, Melody Maker, UBG, AWoL, Bike, When Saturday Comes, Vape News Magazine, and syndicated across the Johnston Press group. He was published in an anthology of “Greatest Football Writing”, but still believes this was a mistake. Dave contributes sketches to comedy shows and used to co-host a radio sketch show. He’s worked with numerous start-ups to develop content for their websites.
