Dorset smokers encouraged to switch to vapes

Smokers in Dorset are being offered a free vape starter kit to encourage them to quit.

Public Health Dorset want smokers to switch to vaping as they say its safer - but admit it's not risk free.

It's part of their new Swap 2 Stop campaign, being launched today (Wednesday 13th March) to mark No Smoking Day.

Sam Crowe, Director of Public Health at Dorset Council and BCP Council said:

"The health advice on vaping is clear. If you smoke, vaping is much safer, but it isn’t entirely risk-free, so if you don’t smoke, don’t vape.

“Thanks to national funding, we can offer people who smoke the chance to make a positive choice for their health by switching from smoking to vaping, alongside our existing range of stop-smoking services in the county.”

Smoking led to more than 3,000 deaths in Dorset between 2017 and 2019 and remains the single biggest cause of preventable death in the UK.

Public Health Dorset is working with local health partners to reach the government’s ambition to be smokefree by 2030.

This means reducing the percentage of people who smoke to 5%, with the latest rates from 2022 at 9.1% in the Dorset Council area and 10.1% in Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole.

Heidi Croucher, Dorset’s Treating Tobacco Dependency Programme Manager, said:

"The evidence shows vaping exposes people to a fraction of the harmful chemicals produced by tobacco smoke. These are the chemicals that cause serious illness including cancer, heart disease, lung disease, stroke and dementia.

“Nicotine has been used safely for decades in nicotine replacement therapy, such as patches and gums, and vaping is another way for smokers to get nicotine without the harm from tobacco smoke. It’s also been proven that vaping is a highly effective way to quit smoking, so we’d encourage any adult who smokes to give it a go, even if you’ve tried to quit before."

The free vape kit offer is available to all Dorset Council and BCP Council residents who smoke and are aged 18 and over.

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