The UK's drive to hand out free e-cigarettes continues to grow. Most recently, North Yorkshire Council in the north of England is planning to buy almost £6 million worth of vejps to help smokers quit.
“Swap to Stop” was launched in 2023 and involves offering smokers a free starter kit with a vejp as a stop smoking tool. The programme is a key part of the UK's strategy to reduce smoking to very low levels and something that Vejpkollen has reported on regularly.
Millions invested in vejp in healthcare
According to the BBC, the contract is worth around £477,000, equivalent to around £6 million. The e-cigarette packs are then distributed via the municipality's “Living Well Smokefree” programme.
The council's evidence base describes smoking as “the biggest preventable cause of death in the UK”, with costs in North Yorkshire estimated to be worth billions of pounds each year.
Vejp as first choice
The same evidence highlights vejp as one of the most effective tools for actually getting smokers to quit.
”Nicotine-containing e-cigarettes are effective smoking cessation aids and are recommended as the first choice,” the officials write in the report.
At the same time, it also emphasises that the potential risks of vejpning are much lower than those of smoking.
”Vaping is significantly less harmful than smoking and represents a small part of the risks of cigarettes,” the municipality writes in the same document.
It is also the basis of the whole “Swap to Stop” programme - offering a less harmful alternative combined with support. Or simply ”harm reduction”, as it is often referred to in debates.
Building on previous results
Vejpkollen has previously reported on how the programme was launched nationally in 2023, with the aim of reaching up to one million smokers. Since then, several initiatives have been rolled out locally with clear results in the municipalities concerned.
North Yorkshire's decision is based on previous experience with similar programmes and refers to results where a large proportion of participants were smoke-free after four, 12 and 26 weeks.
Targeted at adult smokers
Swap to stop is only aimed at adult smokers in organised support services. It is clearly emphasised that vejp should not be used by young people or non-smokers.
”If you smoke, a vape is much safer, if you don't smoke you shouldn't vejpa,” England's chief medical adviser Chris Witty is quoted as saying in the submission.
