Vaping and me

Nicotine vapes can help smokers quit, as they’re less harmful than traditional smoking because they lack toxic tar and carbon monoxide.  

However, vapes aren’t risk-free, with short-term effects including coughing, headaches, dizziness and sore throats.  

Nicotine in vapes can also affect brain development, attention span and learning – and the long-term effects of vaping are still uncertain.

Nicotine in vapes is highly addictive, even though it doesn’t alter your behaviour like alcohol or drugs can do. 

If you try to quit vaping, you can experience withdrawal symptoms such as restlessness,  difficulty concentrating or sleeping, irritability and anxiety.  

Nicotine cravings can make it harder to quit. If you have never smoked, it’s best to avoid vaping altogether so you don’t develop a nicotine addiction.

If you’ve struggled to reduce or quit vaping, it could be due to a physical addiction to nicotine, the habit of vaping, or both.

Vaping products containing nicotine are age restricted. This means it is illegal to sell them to anyone under 18, or for adults to purchase them on behalf of under 18s.

Regulated vapes must keep to strict rules about strength, safety testing, and labelling regulations. Unregulated vapes are illegal. They usually have not been tested to meet safety standards, so you are taking more risks using them.

Illegal vapes usually don’t have proper labelling about the risks of vaping and can be stronger than legally allowed which increases how addictive they are.

Disposable vapes harm the environment, with over 1.3 million thrown away weekly in the UK.