Is vaping really as risky as smoking? Half of UK adults believe it is

Research published by Action on Smoking and Health reveals that more than half of adult smokers across Britain hold the mistaken belief that e-cigarettes pose equal or greater health risks compared to traditional tobacco products.

The 2026 Smokefree GB survey, conducted by YouGov with over 13,000 participants, found that 52 per cent of smokers consider vaping as dangerous as smoking, while 54 per cent of the general adult population share this view.

This represents a dramatic shift in public perception. Ten years ago, merely a quarter of British adults held such beliefs about vaping's relative dangers.

"It's worrying that public perceptions of vaping are now so far out of step with the evidence," said Hazel Cheeseman, chief executive of Ash.

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The misconception rises to 61 per cent among smokers who have never tried e-cigarettes.

Professor Jamie Brown, director of the UCL Tobacco and Alcohol Research Group, described the situation as "a depressing state of affairs."

The stakes could not be higher. "Two out of three smokers will die from a smoking-related illness if they don't quit, so it's a really urgent public health issue," he warned.

E-cigarettes have proven highly effective in helping people abandon tobacco, making accurate information essential.

"We know that e-cigarettes are a really effective way for helping smokers to stop, so it's important for them to have these misperceptions corrected," Prof Brown added.

Scientific evidence consistently demonstrates that vaping carries substantially lower risks than cigarettes, which release thousands of harmful chemicals including carcinogens, toxic metals and poisonous gases.

A comprehensive King's College London review confirmed that e-cigarettes present only a fraction of tobacco's dangers.

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Professor Brown noted that numerous scientific studies have highlighted potential vaping risks without placing them alongside the far greater dangers of tobacco consumption.

"The upshot is that people have seen a lot of news stories over the past 10 to 15 years that focus on the harms of e-cigarettes without putting them in the context of how bad cigarettes are," he explained.

Professor Peter Hajek, who leads the Health and Lifestyle Research Unit at Queen Mary University of London, argued that erroneous beliefs about vaping "closed the door to a relatively easy way out of the deadly habit."

He suggested certain anti-smoking campaigners appeared to hold an unethical conviction that overstating vaping dangers was acceptable if it served their broader objectives.

Remarkably, the survey discovered that nearly one in five people attempting to quit vaping turned to cigarettes as their method.

Cancer Research UK's prevention policy manager Alizée Froguel stated: "There is no good evidence that vaping causes cancer."

She emphasised that legal e-cigarettes are considerably less harmful than tobacco products and serve as proven cessation aids, though long-term effects remain unknown.

"It's right that the UK government is taking action to reduce the appeal and availability of vapes to young people, alongside protecting them from the devastating harms of tobacco," Froguel said.

Ministers are currently implementing fresh restrictions on vaping products whilst preparing additional measures through the tobacco and vapes bill.

The Ash chief executive called for a more coherent public health approach that simultaneously tackles youth vaping while ensuring adult smokers understand the health advantages of switching to e-cigarettes.

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