It is time for Government to stop ignoring the role vaping is playing in helping it inch towards its goal of a Tobacco Free Ireland

Vape Business Ireland is calling on the Government and HSE to embrace vaping as a less harmful alternative to smoking and offer smokers clear, factual information on its Quit.ie website.

The recently published Healthy Ireland 2018 survey results (found here) show that:

• <1% of vaping product users are never smokers
• 4% currently use e-cigarettes and a further 12% of the population have tried them at some point
• Almost half (49%) of all current smokers have tried e-cigarettes at some point, compared with 19% of ex-smokers
• 9% of current smokers use e-cigarettes, with 10% of ex-smokers using them
• 17% of those who have tried to quit smoking in the past year, and 30% of those who have successfully quit smoking, are current users of e-cigarettes

Vape Business Ireland (VBI) Director Michael Kenneally welcomed the survey findings which show an increase in smokers turning to vaping products as a less harmful alternative to cigarettes: “The results of the survey reaffirm what VBI have been stating for over 2 years – smokers are increasingly using vaping as an alternative to smoking despite a total lack of information or advice from our tax payer funded stop smoking service, Quit.ie. The Government has an ambitious plan for a Tobacco Free Ireland by 2025 which has target of 5% smoking prevalence by 2025 but the figure is currently at 17%. Great strides are being made in the UK with public health bodies now using vaping products in their stop smoking services and as a contributory result see a decrease in smoking rates position that the Government and the HSE need to review their stance on vaping products.  The role vaping can play cannot be ignored any more by our policy makers anymore.”

Additional statistics on vaping in Ireland:

• Healthy Ireland 2017 found that an estimated 80,000 fewer smokers in Ireland today than three years ago
• Healthy Ireland 2016 found that 32% of Irish people successfully used vaping products to quit smoking, increasing to 37% in 2017 and the 2018 survey reveals the figure has increased to 41%
• In 2017 45% quit through willpower alone and this decreased to 42% in 2018 which would seem to mean that just 17% use NRTs such as gums/patches
• According to Healthy Ireland 2016, there are between 100,000-150,000 vaping product users in Ireland
• According to Healthy Ireland 2017, 99% of vaping product users are ex-smokers

For more information:

Email: info@vapebusinessireland.ie