VAPING is not only less harmful and less expensive than smoking - but is more pleasurable, according to a UK Study. 

The new study conducted by the UK's University of East Anglia (UAE) found people who switched from tobacco to vaping found it more enjoyable and was one of the main reasons why it was effective in helping consumers make the switch.

It's qualities also saw hardened smokers, who had no intention of giving up smoking, kick their habit.

Lead researcher Dr Caitlin Notley of the UEA team said: [E-cigarettes] are at least 95 per cent less harmful than tobacco smoking, and they are now the most popular aid to quitting smoking in the UK.

"However the idea of using e-cigarettes to stop smoking, and particularly long-term use, remains controversial. We wanted to find out about how people use e-cigarettes to quit smoking and whether vaping supports long-term smoking abstinence."

Researchers took 40 vapers and studied their history of kicking their tobacco habit, asking when they decided to start, their set-up, and which flavours and strengths they vaped while also investigating why they switched. The researchers wanted to find out if vapers moved away from cigarettes purely to stop smoking or if there was any other motivation.

The in-depth research discovered that vaping not only had a string of benefits including being cheaper and helped smokers to regain their sense of taste and smell, it was also deemed so pleasurable that even those hardened smokers who didn't intend to quit, decided to kick the habit.
"We found that vaping may support long term smoking abstinence," said Notley.

"Not only does it substitute many of the physical, psychological, social and cultural elements of cigarette smoking, but it is pleasurable in its own right, as well as convenient and cheaper than smoking."

Researchers found that people who went from cigarettes to e cigarettes actually had better respiratory function, as well as improved sense of taste and smell since they stopped smoking.

Notley added that smokers also found it so pleasurable that it assisted those smokers who "don't even want to stop smoking, to eventually quit."

The news comes in the same week as new figures show smoking has hit an all-time low in the US.

New government statistics show 14 per cent of adults were smokers last year, down from around 16 per cent in 2016.

K. Michael Cummings of the tobacco research program at Medical University of South Carolina said while it wasn't a huge change in numbers, with over 30 million adults still smoking in the country, figures are continuing to decline.

Anti-smoking campaigns, cigarette taxes and smoking bans are all combining to bring down adult smoking rates“ as well as the use of vaping and e-cigarettes, experts said.

"Everything is pointed in the right direction including falling cigarette sales and other indicators, Cummings confirmed.