In 2016, The Royal College of Physicians was first to conclude that vaping is at least 95 percent less harmful than smoking. Since that time Public Health England has conducted annual independent studies to further validate these findings and to date all studies have shown the same positive results.

Public Health England has released the following statements:

• “E-cigarettes are not completely risk free but when compared to smoking, evidence shows they carry just a fraction of the harm. The problem is people increasingly think they are at least as harmful and this may be keeping millions of smokers from quitting. Local stop smoking services should look to support e-cigarette users in their journey to quitting completely.”
• “E-cigarettes could be a game changer in public health in particular by reducing the enormous health inequalities caused by smoking.”
• “My reading of the evidence is that smokers who switch to vaping remove almost all the risks smoking poses to their health.”
• “We encourage smokers who want to use e-cigarettes as an aid to quit smoking to seek the support of local stop smoking services.”
• “There are over 6 million smokers in England and smoking is still the leading cause of premature death and disease particularly among the most disadvantaged in our society. Helping more smokers quit is vital if we’re to achieve the government’s vision of a smokefree society by 2030, and vaping has a role to play. Vaping has helped many thousands of smokers quit to date. But many thousands more could benefit if they were not put off by the persistent, worsening and inaccurate beliefs the public hold about vaping. Smokers should be reassured by today’s authoritative and detailed report which shows that the UK’s e-cigarette regulations are effective and vaping remains a safer alternative to smoking. I urge smokers to have confidence in our regulatory system and not be put off by alarmist headlines about the risk of vaping which are not backed up by the evidence.”

Health Canada states on their website:

• Completely replacing cigarette smoking with vaping will reduce your exposure to harmful chemicals.
• There are short-term general health improvements if you completely switch from smoking cigarettes to vaping products.
• Vaping is less harmful than smoking. Many of the toxic and cancer-causing chemicals in tobacco and the tobacco smoke form when tobacco is burned.
• Except for nicotine, vaping products typically contain a fraction of the 7,000 chemicals found in tobacco smoke and lower levels of several of the harmful chemicals found in smoke.

The following health organizations have recognized vaping as less harmful than smoking:

• Health Canada
• Public Health England
• American Association of Public Health
• Royal College of Physicians
• British Lung Foundation
• Cancer Research UK
• Royal Society for Public Health
• Royal College of General Practitioners
• Food and Drug Administration

Additionally, National Health Scotland issued a consensus statement on vaping. Twenty health organizations have signed the statement which states, “vaping is definitely less harmful than smoking.”

http://www.healthscotland.scot/media/1576/e-cigarettes-consensus-statement_sep-2017.pdf

The UK has close to 3 million vapers, and to date there has been no evidence of pulmonary lung illness.