Research finds e-cigs users up

After very strong growth in the numbers of people using e-cigs in Britain in 2014, figures edged up much more slowly last year.
After very strong growth in the numbers of people using e-cigs in Britain in 2014, figures edged up much more slowly last year.

THE percentage of people in Britain who use e-cigarettes or vaping products has edged up to almost 7%, a result that is well ahead of many other countries. The growth has occurred as the number of people smoking tobacco in Britain continues to fall.
Research findings from Kantar Media TGI showed that the proportion of British people smoking electronic cigarettes was 6.93% in 2015.
That was up a little from the 6.77% in 2014 – a year that had seen the proportion more than double from the year before.
It means, said the research firm, that Britons are far more likely to be e-cig users than people in France, where the proportion is 2.9%. In Germany just under 2.5% of people use e-cigs and in Spain the share of the population is 2.66%.
The firm goes on to compare e-cig use with regular cigarette consumption. The research found that the percentage of people in Britain who say they smoke cigarettes was 16.5% in 2015, down from 17.39% in 2014 and from 22.28% in 2011.
Kantar Media TGI also said e-cigarettes could be regulated as medical products and possibly made available on prescription this year. If that is true it might have an effect on the commercial e-cigarettes market.
Other commentators have suggested, however, that changes being applied to electronic cigarettes and vaping products regulation under the amended European Tobacco Products Directive (EUTPD2) are likely to take many non-compliant products off the market. And that might work to the benefit of c-stores selling compliant products, often from well-known brands.