Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the effect of the increased numbers of people vaping on (a) nicotine addiction, (b) incidences of increased blood pressure and (c) heart attack rates.

Public Health England (PHE) has published a series of reports on electronic cigarettes including the effects of vaping on health. The reports are available to view at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/e-cigarettes-and-vaping-policy-regulation-and-guidance

While nicotine can contribute to raised blood pressure and cardiovascular risk, it is tar and carbon monoxide, which are the major sources of cardiovascular risk in cigarette smoke, producing nicotine vapour from a solution rather than by burning tobacco means that electronic cigarette vapour is free from almost all the toxic chemicals that accompany nicotine in cigarette smoke.

The Office for National Statistics has recorded the numbers of people using e-cigarettes since 2014 and the combined number of people using e-cigarettes and smoking has not increased since then. The proportion of people who smoke has decreased substantially in the same period.

PHE encourages people who both vape and smoke to stop smoking completely, because this greatly reduces health risks.