Lunch Hour Lecture | Recent trends in smoking and vaping in England

About the lecture:

The landscape of nicotine use in England has changed substantially over recent years. For decades, nicotine consumption was almost entirely through tobacco smoking and smoking rates had been steadily declining. However, the emergence and rapid uptake of e-cigarettes (vapes) has introduced a new dimension to population-level patterns of nicotine consumption. This talk will provide an overview of recent trends in smoking and vaping in England, drawing on data from the Smoking Toolkit Study - a representative monthly cross-sectional household survey that has been monitoring these trends since 2006. The talk will include an overview of changes in the prevalence and patterns of smoking and vaping, the types of products used, and differences across subgroups of the population. It will cover differences in the health risks of smoking and vaping and how the public perceive the relative harms. It will also discuss cessation trends including quit attempts, success rates, stop smoking aids and motives/triggers to quit.

UCL's popular public Lunch Hour Lecture series has been running at UCL since 1942, and showcases the exceptional research work being undertaken across UCL. Lectures are free and open to all and since 2020 have been held online.