The national stop smoking campaign currently underway in the United Kingdom is sending sales of electronic cigarettes soaring as smokers use the devices to quit.
Vape Club, the largest online retailer of vapor products in the U.K., revealed Friday the government backed “Stoptober” campaign, that will run through the end of the month, is causing a drastic surge in vape sales. Public Health England, an agency of the U.K.’s Department of Health behind Stoptober, endorsed vaping for the first time this year as a great way for smokers to quit the habit, reports London Loves Business.
Sales of e-cigarette starter kits have jumped by 37 percent over figures from last year since the stop smoking effort began, Vape Club says. With the government behind vaping as an effective cessation method, it appears smokers are more willing than ever to give the products a try.
“It’s fantastic to see the NHS finally backing vaping as a pathway to quit smoking,” Dan Marchant, director of Vape Club, told London Loves Business. “The NHS advocating vaping as an alternative to tobacco is an enormous breakthrough and will do an outstanding amount of good for public health and tobacco control in the U.K.”
The bulk of public health officials in the U.K. appear swayed by the growing body of positive research on vaping. The latest guidance from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) does not endorse vaping as a smoking cessation tool, but acknowledges the pro-vaping stance of esteemed health bodies in the country.
The Royal College of Physicians agrees that using e-cigarettes eliminates most of the harms attributed to smoking. The medical body also recommends vaping for patients trying to quit traditional tobacco products. Vaping eliminates up to 95 percent of the risk associated with cigarettes because the majority of cancer-causing chemicals are inhaled through smoke, according to Public Health England.
Vaping devices were the primary method used to quit among smokers participating in last year’s Stoptober campaign, with 53 percent of participants reporting using e-cigarettes, according to organizers of the anti-smoking effort. More than 1.5 million former smokers have participated in the Stoptober campaign since 2012.
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