Vape Club Responds to Report

The All-Party Parliamentary Group on Smoking and Health’s Roadmap to a Smokefree Country report sets out the urgent actions needed to end smoking in a generation. It calls on all political parties to support a bold, fully funded strategy that will:

• Reduce smoking rates by 2 million people by the end of this Parliament
• Invest £97 million annually in targeted stop smoking support
• Introduce a ‘polluter pays’ levy to raise £700 million a year from the tobacco industry
• Strengthen regulation to prevent children from the harms of tobacco

Dan Marchant, Director at Vape Club, and founding member of the UKVIA, told Planet of the Vapes: “Whilst we have seen an overall national decline in smoking rates, reaching its lowest points since records began, it’s concerning that only 25% of UK authorities are on track to meet the UK government’s Smokefree 2030 target. Significant gaps remain in the national strategy to reduce smoking rates.

“According to the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities, vaping can have a huge impact on improving a smoker’s chance of successfully kicking the cigarette habit. By ignoring the positive impact of vaping, we risk undoing years of forward steps to reduce smoking prevalence in the UK. Unfortunately, we’re now seeing some smokers who might have switched to e-cigarettes are now hesitant to use them as a tool for smoking cessation due to negative coverage, with many ex-smokers even returning to smoking. 

“The journey to quitting smoking can be challenging, but, taking that first step is incredibly beneficial to your overall health and wellbeing. Transitioning from traditional cigarettes to vaping can offer a significant advantage in this area as you can control your nicotine intake and reduce your nicotine levels with the appropriate vaping products. 

“Disposable vapes are one of the single most effective methods for smokers to switch to vaping. Recent ASH statistics for adult vaping in the UK show us there are 4.7 million adult vapers, of which 31% report using disposable vapes - that works out to almost 1.5 million adults.

“The UK already has a thriving black market for illegal disposable vapes - the over-capacity, sometimes over-strength products, which have not been through the regulatory processes in the UK to ensure they are fit for purpose. 

“It is estimated that the illegal market is actually as big as the legal market, and with so many adults relying on disposable vapes to stay away from cigarettes, any kind of ban is just going to result in a boom for the illegal traders.

“To reverse the trend seen in the latest national statistics, we must focus on clear and fact-based education on the relative risks between vaping and smoking. Without this, we risk not only falling short of the Smokefree target but also witnessing a disturbing trend of people returning to smoking.”

References:

• The report - https://ash.org.uk/uploads/APPG-on-Smoking-and-Health-Report-2025-Web-Version.pdf?v=1743529595
• Vape Club – https://www.vapeclub.co.uk/

Photo Credit:

• Author generated image

Dave Cross

Journalist at POTV

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Dave 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.