More than half of UK smokers wrongly believe vaping is as harmful as, or more harmful than, cigarettes, raising fears that confused public messaging could stop people switching away from smoking.
New analysis by Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) found that 52 per cent of smokers now believe vaping is at least as harmful as smoking.
The figure rises to 61 per cent among smokers who have never tried vaping. Across all UK adults, 54 per cent believe vaping is as harmful or more harmful than cigarettes.
The findings point to a widening gap between public perception and the evidence on relative risk. While vaping is not risk-free and is not recommended for children or people who have never smoked, the UK’s major evidence review found that nicotine vaping exposes users to far fewer harmful substances than smoking tobacco.
“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.
Confusion has grown over the past decade
ASH commissioned YouGov to collect data for its 2026 Smokefree GB survey of more than 13,000 adults, weighted to represent the population. According to the analysis, fewer than a third of smokers correctly believed vaping was less harmful than smoking.
A decade ago, only a quarter of UK adults thought vapes were as harmful as, or more harmful than, cigarettes.
The trend is important because risk perception affects behaviour. If smokers believe vaping carries the same danger as cigarettes, they may be less likely to try it as a quitting aid. The survey also found that, among people who named a strategy to quit vaping, nearly a fifth had used cigarettes.
That is the outcome harm-reduction experts fear most – people moving from a lower-risk nicotine product back to combustible tobacco.
The concern is that official guidance is being drowned out by risk messages that discuss vaping in isolation. NHS advice, government-backed evidence reviews and Cochrane research all point in the same direction. That vaping is not harmless, but for adults who smoke, switching completely is far less risky than continuing to smoke. But the new ASH figures suggest that message is no longer cutting through.
What the evidence says
The 2022 evidence update, commissioned by the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities and led by academics at King’s College London, concluded that “in the short and medium term, vaping poses a small fraction of the risks of smoking”.
The review found significantly lower exposure to harmful substances from vaping compared with smoking, including biomarkers linked with cancer, respiratory disease and cardiovascular disease. It also stressed that vaping is not harmless, particularly for people who have never smoked, and that more evidence is needed on longer-term use beyond 12 months.
The NHS gives similar public-facing advice. It says nicotine vaping is less harmful than smoking, that cigarettes release thousands of chemicals when they burn, and that people who switch completely from smoking to vaping reduce their exposure to toxins linked with cancer, lung disease, heart disease and stroke.
The Cochrane living review, updated with evidence to March 2025, also supports the use of nicotine vapes for smoking cessation. It found 104 studies involving 30,366 adults who smoked and concluded that nicotine vapes can help more people stop smoking for at least six months than nicotine replacement therapy.
The comparison smokers need
That does not mean vaping is risk-free, but it does make the comparison with cigarettes essential.
For adult smokers, the choice is rarely between vaping and fresh air. It’s often between carrying on smoking, trying to quit unaided, using nicotine replacement therapy, or switching to a regulated vape. If smokers are only told that vaping carries possible risks, without being told how those risks compare with cigarettes, they may make a more dangerous choice.
