Why do people start Vaping?

As of 2022, there are currently 4.3 million adult users of e-cigarettes in the United Kingdom. This is the highest amount there has ever been and has continued to grow year on year since statistics were recorded. 

But why do people vape? That’s a common question on everybody’s mind, and in this article, I’m going to look at why people vape, why the numbers of adult vapers continue to grow, and explore the benefits of vaping over smoking.

People start vaping because they’ve quit smoking

Action on Smoking and Health released their yearly survey reports on Vaping amongst adults in the UK this month (September 2022) and it was revealed that there are currently 4.3 million adults that use E-Cigarettes in the UK currently. A number never seen before and a big increase on the previous year, where the number stood at 3.8 million users.

This is such a positive thing for the vaping industry, to see so many more people turning to e-cigarettes as their way to quit smoking, over other conventional Nicotine Replacement Therapy options. This showed in the survey results with 57% of users admitting they were ex-smokers and decided to use an e-cig over anything else to quit.

People will often opt to vape as a way to quit smoking, but still get their nicotine fix just without all the horrible toxic chemicals that are found in cigarettes.

GPs & Stop Smoking services are legitimizing vaping

One of the main reasons people vape is as a way to quit smoking. People will either do it off their own backs, or seek advice and help from their GP or local Stop Smoking service if there is one available to you.

Reports and studies have shown GPs have began legitimizing vaping by recommending patients opt to vape instead of smoke, and referring them to a Stop Smoking service.

Stop Smoking services are normally NHS funded services set up by local councils where people can get crucial advice and support from trained professionals to stop smoking. They offer a variety of NRT options, including patches, gum, and inhalers as well as prescription tablets such as Zyban that will kill any cravings to want to smoke.

But lately, GPs and Stop Smoking services have been recommending and offering E-Cigarettes to people as a quitting tool, to which many people are seeing success. This is a huge step in the right direction for the longevity and future of Vaping. And I’d say this is the biggest factor in why so many people are now vaping in the UK.

People vape to avoid gaining weight or suffering from withdrawals from Nicotine

When people decide to quit smoking, they either opt for a Nicotine replacement therapy, or take Zyban tablets. Zyban is a tablet designed to affect the receptors in your body to eventually make cigarettes taste disgusting and not enjoyable, and you just stop smoking completely.

Or people just decide to go cold turkey and stop completely which takes some serious doing, but it can be done! But people can suffer from withdrawal symptoms from quitting nicotine completely, and one of the side effects of this is a sudden gain in weight, and increased appetite. But why?

If you didn’t know; Nicotine is actually a natural appetite suppressant and can reduce cravings to want to eat all the bad stuff that makes you gain weight. So when people quit on nicotine, their appetite isn’t supressed and the cravings to eat to replace the nicotine cravings come back ten fold and they can see a sudden gain in weight.

Therefore, people will opt to use an e-cigarette as their method to quit smoking, and still have the nicotine they are accustomed to, and not have to experience the withdrawal and side effect symptoms from quitting. 

People vape because they enjoy it

If you’re like myself, then you vape just because you enjoy it, and don’t see it as a NRT method. Some even see vaping as a hobby.

I’ve been vaping for the last 7 years, and have had my fair share of devices, and I dread to think how many flavours of vape juice I’ve tried over the years. And that’s because I just really enjoy vaping!

Getting a new device to try, or a new flavour of vape juice to try is still as exciting to me today as it was when I first started out. And people have a similar view to me I’m sure.

People have to vape to protect their health

Sometimes, people will have to give up smoking cigarettes as a way to protect their health from deteriorating because of an illness they may have contracted because of smoking.

Smoking is the biggest cause of lung disease, heart disease and other breathing related illnesses and 78,000 people a year die from smoking related illnesses in the UK.

People who may have Asthma, COPD or other breathing related illnesses will be advised by their GP they need to quit smoking to preserve their health. And going back to the above point, GPs are suggesting people use an e-cigarette instead of smoking so this could constitute as another reason why people vape.

Vaping is a lot cheaper than smoking

The price of cigarettes seems to be rising every year with prices being the highest they’ve ever been.

Currently, the average price of 20 cigarettes is £11 per pack if bought from a retailer within the UK. Now let’s say you were a 20 a day smoker;

£11 a pack x 365 (days of the year) = £4015

Compare this to the cost of vaping, the main vaping products you need is the E cigarette device itself, a tank, vape juice and coils. You can read my article about how much money you can save by making the switch by following the link

And with coils lasting on average 1-2 weeks, and a bottle of vape juice lasting up to 3 days, the amount people pay out to be able to vape every day is minimal compared to the astronomical price of smoking every day.