Vaping and smoking
According to recent data, in 2025 more than 1 million people who say they have never smoked are now vaping.
The number of smokers in the UK is falling and is now at around 4.9 million people, down from 5.3 million in 2024.
There are now more over-16s vaping than smoking at 5.4 million. The NHS says that vaping is less harmful than smoking, however we don't yet know the long-term effects.
New legislation will take affect in the new year which will permanently ban the legal sale of tobacco to anyone born on or after January 1, 2009. This is to create a 'smoke-free' generation. Do you agree with this?
Have you ever smoked or vaped? How do you feel about vaping taking over smoking?
Comments
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Very interested to see how the new legislation will impact the next generation, I wonder if it will be effective?
I'm not surprised that vaping has overtaken smoking purely because a pack of cigarettes cost so much now!!0 -
Having recently given up smoking after many decades, I can't understand how any youngster can afford to smoke. There are no packets of 10 nowadays, and the well known brands are pushing £20 per packet.
We used to buy them with our dinner money, and still manage to buy a chip roll! (Free water from the drinking fountain in the toilets). 🤣
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£20!? That's so expensive @ChrisR777. Hopefully that and the bad health effects are putting them off. Well done for quitting 😊 Were you ever tempted to vape as an alternative?
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I wonder if they'll just get someone older to buy cigarettes for them @Mary_Scope. I'm sure they'll find a way if they want them enough. Hopefully the opinion of smoking continues to go down, but then will everyone be vaping?
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I read too fast sometimes and read your final sentence as 'Free water drinking from the toilets' 🤣 I was very relieved when I read it back
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I have never tried vaping, and I want to still be smoking! I think the thought of smoking is ingrained in my brain, I will probably crave cigarettes for the rest of my life, but I can't afford them.
I remember being reluctant to hand over a fiver not that long ago. But it's just silly prices now.
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I guess it's good that you can't afford them as it's much better for your health. I briefly smoked a few years ago and I sometimes get the urge when I'm a bit stressed. Is that the same for you or is it more constant?
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Never smoked or vaped
Disgusting
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Smoking is like wearing shoes that are laced much too tight. The ten or twenty times a day you are permitted to unlace them, it feels like a great relief. All we are doing is allowing ourselves some respite, it really isn't a pleasure!
Stress doesn't come into it with me, it has been has just been a part of my life since before puberty. To misquote Noel Gallagher, it was as normal as getting up and having a cup of tea.
My maternal grandfather stopped smoking his pipe aged 77! It's a personal choice, but it wouldn't have been me, not when pipe tobacco wasn't massively expensive in the mid 1980s.
Yes, it's better for my health, but living such a dull and isolated life, it currently feels like yet another thing i must deny myself. That may change in time.
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Smoking is quite disgusting, but once hooked, it can be almost impossible for some to escape it's clutches.
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I vaped for a while but it was to get around the no smoking rules, you were even allowed to vape on a plane back then.
The vapes then were not cloud makers they were a substitute for smoking, just produced a light mist.
So you know, I smoked for nearly 45 years. The vape was for flying and concerts and indoor gigs. This was early 00's and my wife and I both smoked, the vape tied you over did not replace smoking.
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i started smoking at 13, back then a pack of ten was 95p, my mates smoked so i started, i had people who would buy them for me and i assume thats still the case, if people want to smoke they will smoke, banning something makes it more appealing in some ways
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I think that will be the case @kreacher, if people want to do something they will stay find a way even if it is banned.
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That's a great way to describe it @ChrisR777. Is there anything else that you've tried that would provide you a bit of respite? Any relaxing hobbies?
I always saw vapes as an alternative to smoking @CarNineSix. I didn't really expect it to become such a big thing with vape shops on every high street. Did you end up quitting smoking?
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I've never smoked, just don't get it. If I was going to use some addictive substance, it would have to have at least be giving me some sort of proper high!
I'm noticing a lot of youngsters near me still taking up smoking in their early 20's and I can't understand why. Only thing I can think is that maybe they work with older guys in construction etc that are putting pressure on them to conform during 'smoking breaks'. I really can't see any positive to smoking for youngsters nowadays though I must be missing something!
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Ooh you've reminded me of smoking breaks at work @OverlyAnxious. Smokers would actually get more breaks than everyone else which is ridiculously unfair. I wonder if it's still a thing? I hope not.
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