Norfolk E-Cigarette Trial See’s Great Success

Great Yarmouth Council released a free e-cigarette voucher to help people stop smoking – which resulted in more than 100 people quitting within a month.

The free voucher scheme was trialled in Great Yarmouth, Norfolk with research being conducted by University of East Anglia.  The trial was open to smokers who had previously failed at quitting through more traditional means.  Two out of five people managed to quit thanks to the free vouchers.

During the trial, 340 people redeemed a voucher.  143 of these people, 42%, managed to stop smoking by the fourth week.  Due to the success of the trial, the scheme has now been rolled out country-wide.

The University research team worked together with the Public Health Team and the local stop smoking service and their research notes and studies were published in the Nicotine and Tobacco Research journal.

‘Effective way of quitting’ 

Smokers were referred by either their GP or another health service.  They could also apply for the voucher themselves.  Every claimant received at £25 voucher for a Vape Start Kit.

During the trial, people were given advice and support to help them be successful.

In total, 668 participants were referred between December 2019 and July 2021.

The mean age of referrals was 41.4 years old.

The research team was hopeful that the voucher scheme could be rolled out nationwide in order to help more smokers quit.

Prof Caitlin Notley, from UEA’s Norwich Medical School, said compared to other methods, vaping was an “effective way of quitting smoking”.

She said: “Our research has previously shown that they may be particularly helpful in helping people to not only quit, but to stay quit for good.”

The trial not only offered smokers an “affordable route into vaping”, Prof Notley said, but also the support of GPs who “supported the scheme and appreciated being able to offer an alternative to entrenched smokers”.