When e-cigarettes emerged onto the British market back in 2007, there was hope they could curb the country’s crippling addiction to cigarettes.
Smoking remains the leading cause of preventable death and disease in the UK, and e-cigs – or vapes – contain significantly fewer harmful chemicals than cigarettes.
In 2017, over 50,000 people quit smoking using vapes. But despite their use being intended for quitters, there has been an astonishing rise in the uptake of vaping by people who have never smoked before – including children. In