More than ten thousand people die every year in the UK as a direct result of smoking, concerning new research has revealed.
As the leading preventable cause of death, smoking claims 40 lives every single day, as a result of smoking-related heart disease—the equivalent of 15,000 cardiovascular deaths a year.
Now The British Heart Foundation (BHF) is urging the government pass the Tobacco and Vapes Bill through parliament without delay—which would see vape flavours restricted and tobacco sales to anyone born after 1 January 2009 phased out.
The legislation, hailed by the government as the path to creating a smoke-free generation, also aims to expand smoke-free zones to outside schools, playgrounds and hospitals.
Dr Charmaine Griffiths, BHF chief executive, said: 'It is shocking that smoking still takes so many lives across the UK, and tough measures must be taken to ensure future generations don't die early because of tobacco.
'This is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to prevent more families from going through that heartbreak which is why we need to see the Bill passed as a matter of urgency.'
For decades, experts have warned that smoking tobacco, which contains more than 7,000 chemicals including tar, can narrow arteries, and damage blood vessels, which over time can trigger heart disease and stroke.
The lethal habit also increases blood pressure, heart rate and the likelihood of potentially fatal blood clots.
Since the Bill was introduced to parliament in November 2023, there has been an estimated 10,800 smoking-related CVD deaths in the UK
Smoking also unleashes poisonous gasses such as carbon monoxide, which replaces oxygen in the blood—reducing the availability of oxygen for the heart.
More recently, research has shown that cigarettes can also make the vital organ thicker and weaker, making it harder to pump life-giving blood around the body.
And the more a person smokes, the worse their heart function becomes.
Children who regularly vape have also been found to be three times more likely to become smokes later in life, according to a bombshell report published earlier this year.
Figures have long shown how the proportion of youngsters using e-cigarettes has exploded amid the decline of traditional smoking, with more than a third of 16-18-year-olds now regularly inhaling them.
But British researchers now believe the gadgets could pose a worse threat to children than thought.
In the largest global review on vaping in young people to date, experts from the University of York and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM), found that vapers were also more likely to smoke more frequently and intensely.
And experts say the disposable vape ban imposed in June could drive this trend, putting hundred of thousands at risk of dementia, heart disease and organ failure if non-disposable vapes and tobacco remain unrestricted.
Currently, anyone caught breaching the ban—by selling disposable vapes—could face a minimum fine of £200. Meanwhile repeat offenders face up to two years in prison.
Trading Standards can also seize any single-use vapes they find.
But research suggests the move risks undermining the government's progress towards a smoke-free generation, if the Bill is not passed through as a matter of urgency.
Smoking has so far been linked to at least 16 different types of cancer, as well as various heart and lung diseases, infertility and cost of other complications, killing over 8million people every year including over 890,000 from breathing in secondhand smoke.
Now researchers at Manchester Metropolitan University say vaping could pose a similar threat.
This is because vapes allow users to inhale nicotine as a vapour—produced by heating a liquid typically containing a mixture of harmful toxins and flavourings.
Experts are concerned this high nicotine content increases heart rate and blood pressure, as it does in smokers, making blood vessels constrict and damaging artery walls.
Smoking is estimated to cost the nation upwards of £17billion a year—including healthcare costs and lost earnings from people needing to take time off due to smoking related health problems.
