The proportion of smokers who think vapes are more harmful than cigarettes is “worse than ever”, academics have said.

Researchers said that misconceptions about the harms of vapes compared to cigarettes could put smokers off quit attempts.

It comes as the latest results from a major new poll of smokers in England were published.

Some 28,393 adult smokers in England were asked about their perceptions about e-cigarettes between November 2014 and June 2023, with 1,700 people interviewed each month.

When the survey began in 2014, just 11% of smokers thought that e-cigarettes were more harmful than cigarettes and 44% thought they were less harmful.

But by June 2023, the proportion who thought vapes were more harmful had more than doubled and the proportion who thought e-cigarettes were less harmful decreased by 40%, according to the new study, published in the journal JAMA Network Open.

Overall, last summer some 57% of smokers believed that e-cigarettes were equally or more harmful than cigarettes, according to the survey conducted by Ipsos Mori on behalf of academics University College London (UCL).

During the study period there were two notable changes in harm perceptions which coincided with a 2019 rise in cases of lung disease linked to vaping (Evali) in the US – later found to be linked to a contaminant in illegal vapes – and a rise in reports of youth vaping in the UK in 2021.

Lead author Dr Sarah Jackson, from the UCL Institute of Epidemiology and Health Care, said that there is high quality evidence that e-cigarettes can help smoker’s quit and that vaping “poses only a very small fraction of the risks of smoking”.

But she added: “A surprisingly large number of people aren’t aware of this and believe vaping is equally or more harmful to health than smoking, and this can discourage smokers from switching to a less harmful product.

“Since we’ve seen a rise in youth vaping in the UK from early 2021, which has been linked to the introduction of new disposable vapes to the market, we’ve seen perceptions become worse than ever.

“People’s perceptions of the relative harms of e-cigarettes compared to cigarettes are as bad as they’ve ever been.

As a result, smokers may be less likely to switch to vaping, dual users (people who smoke and vape) may continue smoking longer, and young vapers who have never regularly smoked might not be worried about any risks associated with transitioning to smoking.

“There’s an urgent need to tackle misperceptions about vaping to ensure that people are able to make informed decisions about the nicotine products they use.”

Asked about long-term data on risks linked to vaping, she said: “I think a lot of people have concerns that we didn’t know that cigarettes were as harmful as they are for a really long time.

“And so people think that the same might be true for e-cigarettes because they have a relatively new product, but I think what a lot of people don’t appreciate is how far the science has evolved since then.

“If cigarettes were invented today, we would know immediately that they’re incredibly harmful – we don’t need decades of data to know when something is as harmful as cigarettes. If e-cigarettes were similarly harmful, we would already know that.

“I think that is probably one of the key reasons people are mistrustful of e-cigarettes, is that they don’t think the evidence is developed enough to know for sure that they’re safer.”

She also raised concerns about a lack of awareness about the dangers of smoking among young people, adding: “Speaking to young people that I’ve definitely got a sense that the emphasis is very much on vaping being harmful – all the posters in schools are about the harms of vaping, we don’t have the same constant exposure that we did when I was growing up to the message that smoking is incredibly harmful.”

Commenting on the study, Deborah Arnott, chief executive of the charity ASH, said: “There are millions of smokers who now believe vaping is more than or equally harmful as smoking, when the reverse is true, and e-cigarettes are the most effective and easily available quitting aid.

“The tragedy is that as a result many millions of smokers may not try vaping and carry on smoking instead, continuing to put themselves at serious risk of cancers, respiratory and heart disease, followed by premature death.”

The study was published amid reports of a new vape tax to be introduced in the Budget next week.

The Times reported that Chancellor Jeremy Hunt is considering a new levy on the liquid in vapes, with higher levels for products with more nicotine.

– The UCL study was funded by funded by Cancer Research UK.