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This healthcare hub provides wide ranging free advice and information on successfully using vaping as a highly effective quit smoking method for NHS staff and patients who smoke.

Vaping is now seen as one of the most effective and popular ways to break the smoking habit and there is a growing recognition in the NHS of the role that it can play in addressing hospital admissions from tobacco-related conditions. The resources and information in this hub draw on the experience of vaping specialists across the country who have helped some 2.7 million people quit smoking altogether through transitioning to vape devices.

We hope that the advice and information proves invaluable and leads to even more successful quits amongst smokers.

Download your free copy here

Vaping versus Smoking
A guide to quitting smoking through vaping for healthcare professionals

Whether you’re a clinical lead for cardiovascular or respiratory conditions, a frontline healthcare practitioner caring for patients or are responsible for delivering learning and development programmes in your hospital, please download our complete guide on vaping to support successful quits amongst patients who smoke. 

By providing answers to common questions from smokers about vaping, it is designed to help healthcare professionals talk knowledgeably and give best advice and information to patients looking to break away from smoking by transitioning to e-cigarettes. 

Vaping to Quit Smoking Guide

This five-point guide is designed to support both smoking patients and general cigarette-users in successfully conquering their smoking habits by turning to vaping. 

It covers five key steps to a smoke-free life including:

  1. Understanding your smoking habits to enable the best course of action when it comes to vaping 

  2. Types of vape devices that are best for you based on such factors as lifestyle and smoking frequency 

  3. The nicotine levels that are right for you in a vape device based on previous tobacco consumption 

  4. The flavours which will help you stick with vaping and not be tempted back to smoking 

  5. What to do if progress isn’t as quick as you’d hoped 


The guide also covers a range of common questions asked by smokers about vaping and provides evidence-based answers.

Download your free copy here
Download your free poster guide

‘Start Vaping, Stop Smoking’ Poster Series

Ideal for the notice board and reception areas around the hospital, please download a special series of posters encouraging patients with smoking conditions to consider vaping when looking to quit their habits. The posters feature a range of evidence-backed information on why vaping represents a good move for current smokers.

Download your free hospital posters here

What experts say:

“E-cigarettes are not risk free and shouldn’t be used by people who don’t smoke or aren’t at risk of smoking. However, evidence shows that nicotine e-cigarettes carry only a small fraction of the risk involved in smoking. In our review, we did not find evidence of substantial harms caused by nicotine containing electronic cigarettes when used to quit smoking.”
Dr Nicola Lindson, University Research LecturerUniversity of Oxford and Managing Editor of the Cochrane Tobacco Addiction Group
“Helping smokers to quit is one of the best things we can do for their health. Using vapes (e-cigarettes) is a quitting tool many addicted smokers find effective and, given the multiple and immense health risks of smoking, it is much safer to vape than to smoke. Swapping from smoking to vaping is therefore a positive health move.”
Sir Chris WhittyChief Medical Officer for England
“Smoking kills approximately 8 million people worldwide every year and even some of the often most effective treatments have little effect on reducing the number of smokers…the simplicity of tailored support through [vape] flavour advice and supportive messages could have a huge impact in helping people lead smokefree lives.”
Lynne DawkinsProfessor of nicotine and tobacco studies at London Southbank University (LSBU)
“The biggest danger of the youth vaping panic is that it drives counterproductive policies and discourages adults who smoke from switching to a far safer alternative. These adults are dying prematurely at a rate of over 8 million a year…for many, vaping nicotine is the only way to save their lives.”
Dr Colin MendelsohnFounding Chairman of the Australian Tobacco Harm Reduction Association and retired GP of nearly 30 years
“Our Nicotine Research Group at King’s [College London] quickly picked up the gauntlet to study vaping products…as well as synthesising the global evidence on their impact on public health. The evidence indicated that, when appropriately regulated and used, e-cigarettes helped smokers to stop and offered a much less harmful means of continuing nicotine use for those that wished to do so.
Ann McNeillProfessor of Tobacco Addiction at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience
“We should ensure that adult smokers get the right support, which includes provision of accurate information about the reduced risk of vaping and how it can help them stop smoking, while also offering educational material to young people who would have never smoked, to discourage them from starting to vape, in addition to better reinforcement of age of sale and advertising restrictions.”

“If this balance can be struck, e-cigarettes can play a powerful role in consigning smoking cigarettes to the history books in the UK.”
Lion ShahabProfessor of health psychology and co-director of the Tobacco and Alcohol Research Group, at University College London
“Given the expected net health benefits of switching from cigarettes to any of these other products, this trend should be welcomed and accelerated. It is as simple as that. And consumers – indeed, the public in general – must be educated about the relative harms of products that contain nicotine, and their benefits, too.”
Konstantinos Farsalinos, MDPhysician and a research associate at the University of Patras and the University of West Attica in Greece
“E-cigarettes might carry certain health risks and continued surveillance is necessary, but they are likely to be among our most effective and efficacious tools for smoking cessation and pose considerably lower risks than cigarettes.

“In summary, vaping is not safe, but it is at least 95 percent less harmful than smoking.”
Sally Satel, MDSenior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, a lecturer at Yale University School of Medicine.
“In GB, about 8 million people smoke cigarettes, a product that kills at least half of its long-term users if used as intended. The harm from smoking also disproportionately affects people who have other disadvantages such as poor mental health. We know that vaping is much less harmful, however, about 40% of people who smoke now think that there is no difference in harm. “This is concerning as it will make them less likely to try what we know is an effective way of stopping smoking.”
Dr Leonie BroseReader in Addiction Education and Nicotine Research, King’s College London (KCL)
“E-cigarettes are a major breakthrough in public health. They are helping smokers quit on an unprecedented scale and help substantially with eliminating smoking-related cancer, heart disease and lung disease.  “The progress would be faster though if media did not consistently promote misinformed stories that put smokers off moving over to vaping. A correction to this trend is urgently needed.”
Prof Peter HajekProfessor of Clinical Psychology, and Director, Health and Lifestyle Research Unit at the Wolfson Institute of Population Health, Queen Mary University of London
“It is particularly important that pregnant women who smoke tobacco are encouraged to stop as soon as possible. Switching to a less harmful way of using nicotine, such as vaping, needs to be encouraged and promoted. It is vital that media reporting does not scare pregnant women about vaping, because the consequences of continued tobacco smoking are so harmful for babies, as well as families.”
Prof Caitlin NotleyProfessor of Addiction Sciences, Norwich Medical School, University of East Anglia
“The evidence on vaping for smoking cessation is clear and strong, it is far safer to switch to vaping nicotine than it is to continue smoking combustible tobacco. Plus, these products are more effective than other available products in helping people to quit smoking. However, it is the poor reporting of studies, as well as poorly conducted studies, which has led to widespread misperceptions. “Consequently, we are losing out on the net population health win that these products can offer. This trend needs to be stopped and reversed.”
Dr Sharon CoxPrincipal Research Fellow in Behavioural Science and Health, University College London (UCL)
“There is an ongoing disconnect between scientific evidence on the relative harms of vaping compared with smoking and how these risks are communicated to the public. Cigarettes are uniquely lethal, and a large number of studies have established that vaping (although not entirely risk-free) is much less harmful than smoking.”
Dr Sarah Jacksonrincipal Research Fellow, UCL Tobacco and Alcohol Research Group, University College London (UCL)
“When I see patients who smoke they are already sick with smoking-related disease and have often given up hope of ever stopping. Vaping is a valuable tool in our armoury to tackle smoking, particularly for patients who are heavily addicted.”
Dr Ruth SharrockClinical Lead for Tobacco Dependency, North East and North Cumbria NHS Integrated Care Board
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Indeed, Public Health England – now the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities – has and continues to highlight the efficacy of vaping as a quitting tool.  
In its latest evidence review, published in 2022, OHID said vaping products remain the most common aid used by people to help them stop smoking. It also revealed that, in stop smoking services in 2020 to 2021, quit attempts involving a vaping product were associated with the highest success rates. 

Further, the OHID review concluded that, while vaping is not risk free, it poses just ‘a small fraction of the risks of smoking’.  

What the research says:

The latest data from the Office for National Statistics showed 13.3% of adults in the UK smoke – this is the lowest level on record and can be ‘partly attributed to the increase in vaping and e-cigarette use’.
Office for National Statistics (ONS)2022
Office for National Statistics (ONS)
“Vaping products remain the most common aid used by people to help them stop smoking.”
Office for Health Improvement and Disparities (OHID)2022
Office for Health Improvement and Disparities (OHID)
There is high certainty evidence that people are most likely to stop smoking for at least six months using nicotine vapes than using nicotine replacement therapies such as patches and gums.
Cochrane Review, research led by University of Oxford and funded by Cancer Research UK2022
Cochrane Review, research led by University of Oxford and funded by Cancer Research UK
“In Stop Smoking Services in 2020 and 2021, quit attempts involving a vaping product were associated with the highest quit rates.”
Office for Health Improvement and Disparities (OHID)2022
Office for Health Improvement and Disparities (OHID)
Flavours have a critical role to play in helping smokers quit. Research commissioned by the UKVIA found 1 in 3 vapers feared a ban on flavours would send them back to smoking. This represents nearly 1.5 million people in the UK.
One Poll survey, commissioned by the UKVIA2023
One Poll survey, commissioned by the UKVIA
There is ‘significantly lower exposure to harmful substances from vaping compared with smoking, as shown by biomarkers associated with the risk of cancer, respiratory and cardiovascular conditions’.
Office for Health Improvement and Disparities (OHID)2022
Office for Health Improvement and Disparities (OHID)
There is ‘no good evidence’ that vaping causes cancer. Nicotine, the addictive chemical found in cigarettes and some vape products, does not cause cancer.
Cancer Research UK2023
Cancer Research UK
Based on reviewed evidence, vaping poses ‘a small fraction’ of the risks of smoking and the ‘95% less harmful’ estimate remains broadly accurate.
Office for Health Improvement and Disparities (OHID)2022
Office for Health Improvement and Disparities (OHID)
Smokers who receive help selecting the flavour of vape they will use, as well as supportive text messages, are much more likely to quit.
London Southbank University (LSBU)2023
London Southbank University (LSBU)
E-cigarettes are as beneficial for the cardiovascular system as conventional nicotine-replacement therapies when stopping smoking.
Sheffield Hallam University, research funded by Heart Research UK2023
Sheffield Hallam University, research funded by Heart Research UK
Half of England’s adult smokers switching to vaping could save the NHS more than half a billion pounds per year.
Research from Brunel University London, with data from NHS Digital, the Office for National Statistics and the Royal College of Physicians
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Visit our dedicated page for smokers where you can find more evidenced based facts on vaping, a number
of FAQs, a guide to how vape devices work and an interactive map of specialist vape retail outlets across the country who can provide smokers with lots of high level advice on how to quit smoking using vaping.

Visit The Consumer Zone