A new study has found that 316,000 young people who use disposable vapes never regularly smoked tobacco, but warns that banning the vape products would risk causing relapse among ex-smokers.

The proportion of adults in Britain using disposable e-cigarettes rose from 0.1% to 4.9% between January 2021 and August 2023, according to a UCL study, which was funded by Cancer Research UK.

Use of disposal vapes was higher among18- to 24-year-olds (14.4%).

Use among people who had never regularly smoked was rare (1.5%), but higher among 18- to 24-year-olds (7.1%), equivalent to 316,000 young people in Britain.

According to the report, while vaping is ‘much less harmful than smoking, it carries more risks than neither vaping nor smoking’, and so preventing the uptake of vaping among people who have never regularly smoked is a ‘public health priority’.

The Government is considering responses to its consultation on ‘creating a smoke free generation’, which includes proposals to restrict, or prohibit, the sale of disposable vaping products, citing the environmental impacts of disposable vapes and concern about increasing use among children and young people.

Lead author Dr Sarah Jackson warned that a ban on disposal vapes would impact 1.2 million people who smoke and would benefit from switching to e-cigarettes, and 744,000 ex-smokers who may be at risk of relapse.

Dr Jackson said: ‘While banning disposables might seem like a straightforward solution to reduce youth vaping, it could have substantial unintended consequences for people who smoke.

‘In the event of a ban, it would be important to encourage current and ex-smokers who use disposables to switch to other types of e-cigarettes rather than going back to just smoking tobacco.’