The UK government set out ambitious plans in 2019 to make England smoke free by 2030. To achieve this, they recently announced plans to offer free vape starter kits to one million smokers in a bid to help them quit.
While smoking cigarettes is associated with a range of serious health problems, mounting evidence shows that vaping is also not without harms and risks. Given that there is still a lot we do not know about the health effects of vaping, we argue it is potentially irresponsible to recommend smokers switch to vaping to quit – especially when other medically proven methods to quit smoking already exist.
