The organisation ASH (Action on Smoking and Health) have published the results of the annual YouGov youth vaping survey for 2022.
This survey has been conducted from 2013 up until 2022 and it asked 11-18 year olds for their responses to tobacco and vaping.
The 2022 survey had a huge response with 2613 taking part.
You can view the whole factsheet here – Use of e-cigarettes (vapes) among young people in Great Britain.
Key Findings in the ASH Youth Vaping Survey Results 2022
Obviously I will only summarise some of the main points in the survey – but those that caught my eye include…
- A large majority (83.8%) have never tried or are unaware of e-cigarettes.
- There is an increase in 11-17 year olds who have ever used a vape – from 11.2% in 2021 up to 15.8% in 2022.
- 7% of 11-17 year olds were current vapers compared to 3.3% in 2021.
- Under 16s are least likely to try e-cigarettes. 10.4% of 11-15 year olds have tried vaping compared to 29.1% of 16-17 year olds.
- The statistics of 11-17 year olds who vape but have never tried a cigarette are low at 1.7% who report at least monthly use.
- In 2022 the most frequently used product for those who vaped was a disposable vape – 52% compared to 7.7% in 2021. Most popular brands are Elf Bar and Geek Bar.
ASH “Brand of device tried by 11-17 year olds who vape disposables - The number of 11-17 year olds who thought vaping was more harmful than tobacco stayed the same as 2020 at 40.9%.
- 42.1% thought vapes were less harmful than tobacco.
- When purchasing the main source for tobacco and vapes is a shop.
Conclusions
ASH highlight the large increase in disposable vape users compared to 2021 – which is a topic for a whole different article!
Also it notes that awareness of e-cigarettes is generally high at 90% but regular usage is still extremely low. With 3.1% of respondents only vaping regularly (more than once a week) and 3.9% occasionally (less than once a week).
Even rarer are those who have never smoked who now vape. In fact 92.2% in total of 11-17 year olds who have never smoked have never vaped (83.9%) or are not aware of e-cigarettes (8.2%).
So although the increase in use of Disposable Vapes appears alarming, the rest of the figures do seem to show that youth vaping seems to be under control.
However recent alarmist articles in the press seem to think that youth vaping is far more of a problem – which I will cover in another news article!
Responses
Below are a few responses to the results of this survey from Twitter.
— UKVIA (@Vaping_Industry) July 7, 2022
— UKVIA (@Vaping_Industry) July 7, 2022
Our Chief Executive has been quoted in much of the media coverage of the new ASH/YouGov survey on #vaping and young people, published today: pic.twitter.com/rJARkZqGzD
— IBVTA (@TheIBVTA) July 7, 2022
New data on UK teen vaping and smoking. Between 2020 and 2022, teen vaping increased 3%; smoking decreased 2%.
Note how the UK govt releases real-time data (unlike the US).
UK teen smoking is now 14%. This is 7 times higher than US teen smoking (1.9%).https://t.co/u43Ua3mejn
— Charles A. Gardner, PhD (@ChaunceyGardner) July 7, 2022
Let me know what you think of these results in the comments below!
