It wasn't that long ago that vaping was a pretty rare thing to see. Originally associated with hipsters or tech obsessives jumping on a new craze, it's become so much more than that in 2018. Now there are vaping stores all over the place and half the people you see out in the smoking area are (literally) lighting up one for a variety of reasons.

For some, it's just a cleaner way of smoking, for others it's being able to do it in places where cigarettes are frowned upon, not giving everyone in the immediate vicinity passive smoking to contend with - and then there's the fact that you can get all sorts of different flavours.

However, there are many out there who don't realise that it also provides health benefits too.

Apparently, 44 per cent of smokers in England believe that vaping is just as harmful as smoking cigarettes, but that just isn't true. In fact, according to research carried out by Public Health England earlier this year, vaping is apparently 95 per cent less harmful than smoking.

To combat the public misconceptions, PHE released a video to prove their findings. The agency's filmed experiment demonstrates the damage that smoking does to your body, compared to the damage done by vaping. Smoking experts, Dr Rosemary Leonard and Dr Lion Shahab, explain how much tar can accumulate in the body by smoking cigarettes. You can watch it below:

Vaping has now been proven as a more effective means of quitting smoking (rather than going cold turkey), but some people are put off it for health concerns that Professor John Newton, Director of Health Improvement at Public Health England, believes are unfounded:

"It would be tragic if thousands of smokers who could quit with the help of an e-cigarette are being put off due to false fears about safety. We need to reassure smokers that switching to an e-cigarette would be much less harmful than smoking.

"This demonstration highlights the devastating harms caused by every cigarette and helps people see that vaping is likely to pose only a fraction of the risk.

"We want to encourage more smokers to try and quit completely with the help of an e-cigarette, or by using other nicotine replacement such as patches or gum, as this will significantly improve their chances of success."

These misconceptions may stop non-smokers from trying vaping, but it also prevents regular smokers from switching to e-cigarettes as a potential way to quit entirely.

"I hope this illustrative experiment helps people see the huge damage caused by smoking that could be avoided by switching to an e-cigarette," Dr. Shahab said. "Research we and others have conducted shows that vaping is much less harmful than smoking and that using e-cigarettes on a long-term basis is relatively safe, similar to using licensed nicotine products, like nicotine patches or gum."

So, it just goes to show: if you're a regular smoker who is looking to quit, your best bet is to use e-cigarettes, or some other form of nicotine replacement (such as gum or patches), rather than trying to stop completely.

It wasn't that long ago that vaping was a pretty rare thing to see. Originally associated with hipsters or tech obsessives jumping on a new craze, it's become so much more than that in 2018. Now there are vaping stores all over the place and half the people you see out in the smoking area are (literally) lighting up one for a variety of reasons.

For some, it's just a cleaner way of smoking, for others it's being able to do it in places where cigarettes are frowned upon, not giving everyone in the immediate vicinity passive smoking to contend with - and then there's the fact that you can get all sorts of different flavours.

However, there are many out there who don't realise that it also provides health benefits too.

Apparently, 44 per cent of smokers in England believe that vaping is just as harmful as smoking cigarettes, but that just isn't true. In fact, according to research carried out by Public Health England earlier this year, vaping is apparently 95 per cent less harmful than smoking.

To combat the public misconceptions, PHE released a video to prove their findings. The agency's filmed experiment demonstrates the damage that smoking does to your body, compared to the damage done by vaping. Smoking experts, Dr Rosemary Leonard and Dr Lion Shahab, explain how much tar can accumulate in the body by smoking cigarettes. You can watch it below:

Vaping has now been proven as a more effective means of quitting smoking (rather than going cold turkey), but some people are put off it for health concerns that Professor John Newton, Director of Health Improvement at Public Health England, believes are unfounded:

"It would be tragic if thousands of smokers who could quit with the help of an e-cigarette are being put off due to false fears about safety. We need to reassure smokers that switching to an e-cigarette would be much less harmful than smoking.

"This demonstration highlights the devastating harms caused by every cigarette and helps people see that vaping is likely to pose only a fraction of the risk.

"We want to encourage more smokers to try and quit completely with the help of an e-cigarette, or by using other nicotine replacement such as patches or gum, as this will significantly improve their chances of success."

These misconceptions may stop non-smokers from trying vaping, but it also prevents regular smokers from switching to e-cigarettes as a potential way to quit entirely.

"I hope this illustrative experiment helps people see the huge damage caused by smoking that could be avoided by switching to an e-cigarette," Dr. Shahab said. "Research we and others have conducted shows that vaping is much less harmful than smoking and that using e-cigarettes on a long-term basis is relatively safe, similar to using licensed nicotine products, like nicotine patches or gum."

So, it just goes to show: if you're a regular smoker who is looking to quit, your best bet is to use e-cigarettes, or some other form of nicotine replacement (such as gum or patches), rather than trying to stop completely.