As Brits set new year’s resolutions to go on diets or give up smoking a report has suggested that giving up traditional cigarettes for safer e-cigarettes such as vaping could boost the British economy by billions.
A major report – Economic impact assessment of the vaping industry – by the Centre for Economics and Business Research (Cebr) has suggested switching from cigarettes to vaping or e-cigarettes would cut NHS costs as well as boost the economy more widely. It comes as million of Brits try to give up smoking traditional cigarettes as part of their new year’s resolution.
But it also feeds into a worldwide debate over whether e-cigarettes including vaping and heated tobacco are a safer form of smoking.
The Cebr report claimed: “The total saving in healthcare costs associated with smokers switching to using vaping products is estimated to be £322 million in 2019. The potential healthcare saving if 50 percent of all smokers switched to vaping is £698 million [a year].”