‘Defend the tools that are wiping out cigarettes in the UK’

Britons are being urged to speak up and defend the tools helping their country eradicate cigarettes.

Lawmakers in London are planning new restrictions on safer nicotine alternatives, which have helped drive UK smoking to its lowest level ever.

As the country advances towards smoke-free status, Smoke Free Sweden is urging doctors, retailers, policymakers and consumers to use a public consultation on the proposed flavour and packaging rules as their chance to oppose changes that could reverse years of progress.

“Almost five million Britons have used vapes to quit smoking,” said Smoke Free Sweden leader Dr Delon Human. “Now is the time to build on that success, not destroy it. If safer alternatives are made less appealing, millions of smokers will be trapped with cigarettes – the most deadly nicotine product of all. This consultation must be used to develop policies that protect children without punishing the adults these products help.”

Research by the UK’s leading voice on tobacco control ASH provides compelling evidence against the proposals, which are being promoted as a means to protect the young:

• Smoking in the UK has almost halved from 20.2% to 11% in little over a decade, driven largely by smokers switching to vaping.
• 8 million Britons have used vapes to quit smoking.
• Youth vaping has held flat since 2021, and under-18s who have never smoked rarely take it up.
• Use of disposable vapes has collapsed since 2023.

“Protecting children and helping adults quit are not competing goals and the data shows both are already happening in the UK,” said Dr Human, a former secretary-general of the World Medical association. “The proposals now on the table are a direct threat to that success and a huge step backwards in public health strategy.”

The restrictions proposed for safer nicotine products include plain white packaging, restricted colours, a display ban and restrictions on flavour names.

Flavour variety in safer nicotine products is important because fruit, not tobacco, keeps most ex-smokers off cigarettes: 60% prefer it, while only 9% choose tobacco flavour.

“Strip away flavours, and ASH’s own research shows 15% of vapers expect to smoke more, while 14% expect to turn to the illegal market,” Dr Human said. “A rule designed to protect children could instead send adults back to cigarettes, or into a black market with none of today’s safeguards.”

The risk is compounded by a flood of misinformation about vapes, which are proven to be up to 95% less harmful than combustible cigarettes. According to ASH, more than half of UK adults wrongly believe vaping is as harmful as smoking, and nearly one in five who tried quitting vaping went back to cigarettes instead.

Packaging that makes vaping look as dangerous as smoking will simply fuel that deadly misconception and cost even more lives.

Smoke Free Sweden is urging the following action:

• Physicians and experts – submit clinical evidence, not just industry data.
• Retailers – show how age verification protects children without destorying what adults rely on.
• Vapers and ex-smokers – tell the government what flavour meant to your quit journey.
• MPs and councils – test every proposal against one question: does it help smokers quit, or send them back to cigarettes?

Submissions to the consultation, which closes on 2 October 2026, can be made here: https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/tobacco-and-vapes-packaging-appearance-and-display

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