- “For the first time, current e-cigarette use has declined year-on-year, from 7.1% to 6.3% of the adult population in Great Britain, amounting to 3.2 million people.
- Over half (58.9%) of current vapers are ex-smokers and the proportion has grown year-on-year, while the proportion of vapers who also smoke (known as dual users) has fallen to 38.3% in 2020.
- The proportion of adult smokers who had never tried e-cigarettes fell rapidly from 2010 until 2014, and continued falling, but gradually, from 2015 onwards. In 2020 it was 32.4%.
- Only 0.3% of never-smokers are current vapers (amounting to 2.9% of vapers), down from 0.8% in 2019,” reported the survey.
The findings also indicated that only 2% of current vapers were never-smokers, and an overall 60% of the adult vapers identified their health as their “number one reason for taking up e-cigarettes.” Michael Landl, director of the World Vapers’ Alliance, pointed out that once again these results indicate that “vaping is a gateway away from smoking.”
Another review debunks the “Gateway Theory”
In line with this, an Australian review released earlier this year titled, “Does the gateway theory justify a ban on nicotine vaping in Australia?,” also debunked the infamous Gateway Theory, which is sadly one of the major arguments that local authorities use to justify the ban on nicotine vaping products.
Review authors Colin Mendelsohn and Wayne Hall, pointed out that a more plausible explanation as to why young people who vape are more likely to smoke, are personality factors. This means that those teens who vape are risk-takers and are therefore also more likely to smoke, drink alcohol, use cannabis and other substances, as well have unprotected sex. This argument has already been emphasized by other experts in multiple studies.
Recent Study Looks Into What Drives Teens in South Asia to Use Tobacco
