New experiment reveals shocking effects of smoking compared to vaping

Public Health England is encouraging smokers in the North West to quit this January by using the Personal Quit Plan, to increase their chances of stopping for good.

Figures show that there are currently 1,174,394 smokers across the North West, while there were more than 78,000 smoking related hospital admissions in 2016/17.

A Grandmother who smoked for 33 years is encouraging smokers to make quitting smoking their New Year’s resolution by picking up an e-cig instead of a cigarette.

Grandmother of eight Diane Edmonds, 54, who used e-cigs to help her beat the habit which saw her get through a pouch of tobacco a week, joined the 2.5million UK adults who use e-cigarettes, and the thousands of people to use them to successfully quit.

Diane, who hasn’t smoked a cigarette for eight months, said: “I would recommend anyone smoking to try giving up like this. For me it took away the having to have willpower and feeling like I was missing out on something.

“I’d tried everything in the past to give up. But when it came down to it I just didn’t have enough willpower. Even a small craving or the slightest thing went wrong and I’d be reaching for my tobacco.”

Studies show that 44% of smokers still either wrongly believe that vaping is as harmful as smoking, while 22% say they didn’t know that vaping poses much lower risks to health.

“It felt like a cigarette and I didn’t feel like I was missing out on anything. It kept my fingers nice and busy, I liked the fact that steam came out of it,” said Diane.

“I didn’t have any nicotine withdrawal at all, because of course with a vape you’re getting all the nicotine but none of the other nasty things you get in cigarettes. If I thought of a cig I’d just have a quick vape and the moment passed.”

Dr Rebecca Wagstaff, Deputy Director Health and Wellbeing at Public Health England North West, added: “Smoking is a deadly habit which increases the risk of developing more that 50 serious health conditions, including cancer and heart disease, and doubles the risk of dying from a stroke.

“We know that going cold turkey is the least effective quitting method and that most successful quit attempts use a combination of stop smoking support methods. Why not pick up an e- cigarette instead of a normal cigarette and contact one of the many fantastic stop smoking support services we have in the North West. Search Smokefree and make a healthy start to 2019.”

Public Health England (PHE) has released a new film showing the devastating harms from smoking and how these can be avoided by switching to an e-cigarette or using another type of quit aid. The film has been released as part of PHE’s Health Harms campaign, which is encouraging smokers in the North West to make a quit attempt this January by demonstrating the personal and irrefutable harm to health from every single cigarette.

The film features smoking expert Dr Lion Shahab and Dr Rosemary Leonard carrying out an experiment to visually demonstrate the high levels of cancer-causing chemicals and tar inhaled by an average smoker over a month, compared to not smoking or using an e-cigarette. The results of the experiment visually illustrate the stark contrast between the impacts of smoking and vaping. Research estimates that while not risk-free, vaping is at least 95% less harmful than smoking.

Public Health England’s Personal Quit Plan is a quick, free and easy-to-use digital tool to help smokers find the right support to help them quit, taking into account how much they smoke and any quitting support used previously.