Survey Shows Many Brits in Favour of Vapes on the NHS
A recent survey has revealed that more than 1 in 3 Brits are in favour of vapes on the NHS.
Carried out by GoSmokeFree who surveyed over 800 people, the research also discovered the majority of Brits believe smoking and vaping should be considered different in legal terms.
The research is a huge show of support for vaping, with the public clearly seeing the benefits of e-cigarettes as an effective stop-smoking aid.
With policy-makers already mulling over the decision to offer vapes for free on the NHS, this new data could help the government in gauging public opinion on the matter.
Vapes on the NHS – A Closer Look at the Data
You might have heard about the UK government’s plans to make vapes available on the NHS – we actually covered the story ourselves in our Vapes on Prescription blog post published back in November.
Well it appears many people across the UK would appear to support such a policy, with 37% of those surveyed saying they think offering vapes to smokers is a good idea.
The survey also asked the participants if they were aware that smoking costs the government around £12.6 billion per year. 59% said they had no idea.
The majority of these billions is spent on treating smoking-related illnesses, and we can’t help but feel that if more were aware of the true financial cost of smoking then the percentage of people who support offering vapes for free on the NHS would be even higher.
One way to offset some of the financial burden caused by smoking-related illness is to raise taxes, and 56% believe smokers should pay increased duties to fund this bill. That was in stark contrast to the 59% who said vaping products should be tax-free in order to encourage people to replace regular cigarettes with e-cigarettes, so it’s clear many support progressive policies on vaping.
Why a Progressive Approach Works
We recently published a post titled “Reducing Smoking Rates: Why Harm Reduction Policies Yield Best Results” in which we discussed how government policy on vaping differs around the world, and what impact these contrasting policies are having on smoking rates.
After looking at countries with an enforced vaping ban in place, we noticed that smoking rates are falling at a much slower rate compared to countries opting for harm reduction policies. In fact, countries choosing to promote the use of e-cigarettes as a smoking cessation tool have seen their smoking rates drop at twice the rate of those where vaping bans have been enacted.
So the evidence is clear: vaping helps people quit smoking and banning vapes or increasing taxes risks encouraging people to start smoking again.
Thanks to surveys such as this one by GoSmokeFree it’s evident much of the public are supportive of a progressive approach to vaping, and it adds more weight to the argument the government should be making vapes available on the NHS.
If you’re yet to join the vaping revolution, today’s the day you should ditch the cigarettes in favour of the much less harmful alternative. For more information take a look at our Getting Started guide, or if you’d prefer to browse some devices which are perfectly-suited to beginners, check out our range of starter kits.