More than half of the current 2.9 million e-cigarette users in the UK have quit smoking tobacco, according to a new study by Action on Smoking and Health (ASH).

The study, conducted by YouGov on behalf of ASH, showed that for the first time ever, there are more ex-smokers who use e-cigarettes (1.5 million) than current smokers who use the devices. The main reason people gave for their use of e-cigarettes was to stop smoking. 

There has been a four-fold increase in the number of people using e-cigarettes since 2012, when the figure was just 700,000, but this growth has slowed in recent years. Deborah Arnott, chief executive of ASH, said: “The rapid growth in e-cigarette use has come to an end, while over a third of smokers have still never tried e-cigarettes, saying the main reasons are concerns about the safety and addictiveness of e-cigarettes. It’s very important smokers realise that vaping is much, much less harmful than smoking.”