Government introduces free vape starter kits for smokers

The government is offering smokers a free vape starter kit alongside behavioural support to help people quit smoking.

The ‘swap to stop’ scheme is part of measures designed to help the government achieve its target of making England smoke free by 2030.

The scheme also aims to tackle the growing rate of vaping among young people and children, with NHS figures from 2021 showing that 9% of 11 to 15-year-old children used e-cigarettes, up from 6% in 2018.

To do this, Health Minister Neil O’Brien has launched a call for evidence on youth vaping to identify opportunities to reduce the number of children accessing and using vape products – and explore where government can go further.

He said: “Up to two out of three lifelong smokers will die from smoking. Cigarettes are the only product on sale which will kill you if used correctly.

“We will offer a million smokers new help to quit. We will be funding a new national ‘swap to stop’ scheme – the first of its kind in the world. We will work with councils and others to offer a million smokers across England a free vaping starter kit.”

Pregnant women will also be offered financial incentives to help them stop smoking, including vouchers, alongside behavioural support, by the end of next year.

Is vaping harmful?

According to Cancer Research UK, research shows that vaping or using e-cigarettes is “far less harmful than smoking.” This is because e-cigarettes do not contain cancer-causing tobacco, and most of the toxic chemicals found in cigarettes are not in e-cigarettes.

There is also no good evidence that vaping causes cancer, which makes them much safer to use than tobacco, which causes at least 15 different types of cancer

While some potentially harmful chemicals have been found in e-cigarettes, levels are usually low and generally far lower than in tobacco cigarettes.

NHS England says that switching to vaping significantly reduces your exposure to toxins (including tar and carbon monoxide, two of the most harmful substances in tobacco smoke) that can cause cancer, lung disease, and diseases of the heart and circulation like heart attack and stroke.

However, they are not risk-free, and since e-cigarettes are a relatively new product, the long-term effects are not yet known. Short-term effects include throat and mouth irritation, headache, cough and nausea, but these side effects tend to reduce over time with continued use.

For this reason, Cancer Research UK and NHS England recommend that e-cigarettes should only be used to help people stop smoking, or to stop smokers from going back to tobacco.

Funding for stop smoking services does not go far enough, say ASH

Deborah Arnott, chief executive of Action on Smoking and Health (ASH), has welcomed the measures, but says that the funding provided does not go far enough.

In total, £35 million has been committed to the NHS this year so that all smokers admitted to hospital will be offered NHS-funded tobacco treatment services, as well as a further £3 million to create a specialised ‘illicit vapes enforcement squad’. This is on top of £68 million of funding provided for stop smoking services between 2021 and 2022.

However, the Khan review recommended that the government invests £125 million a year to ensure the smoke free target was met by 2030, as Ms Arnott explains:

“In 2019 the government committed to making England smoke free by 2030, but it took four years for a public health minister to secure concrete action to deliver. Vapes increase smokers’ chances of successfully quitting, as do vouchers for pregnant smokers so these are welcome steps in the right direction, but they are nowhere near sufficient.”

“Last year’s Khan report, commissioned by government, warned that without immediate and sustained action the smoke free 2030 target would be missed by years. Not enough has changed, so that is still the case. Khan’s comprehensive strategy required funding of £125 million a year, many times more than the current announcements. Funding that’s desperately needed to reinstate cuts of more than 90% to mass media campaigns, and nearly a half to smoking cessation services and wider tobacco control. Not to mention the absence of the tougher regulations Khan recommended to raise the age of sale, and reduce the appeal of smoking as well as vaping.”

The ASH is now urging the government to increase its funding allocation for stop smoking services, as well as enforcing tobacco companies to fund more support for smokers and awareness campaigns discouraging children from starting and motivating smokers to stop.