Swap to Stop offer continues in Swindon
Date: 2 May 2025
Here is some messaging to parents, carers and pupils around vaping and smoking, which we hope is helpful for you all.
For adults who are currently smoking, vaping increases your chances of quitting smoking three fold and is currently the most popular method of stopping smoking nationally. Vaping poses only a small fraction of the risks of smoking in the short to medium term and whilst the long term risks are not certain, any harms are expected to be significantly lower than the deadly impacts of smoking. This is because vaping involves significantly lower levels of harmful chemicals, no tobacco and involves none of the burning that occurs during smoking.
Of course, if you are a young person or a non-smoker, you should not vape. Vapes still contain nicotine, a highly addictive substance, that young people’s developing minds are particularly sensitive too and is not completely harm free. Because of this we continue to work with local schools via outreach to educate young people around risks of vaping. However, if you are a parent that switches from smoking to vaping, not only are you greatly reducing your health harms, but you completely remove the risk of second hand smoke affecting your children’s health.
With this in mind, we encourage any adults that smoke to enter into Swindon Borough Council’s Swap to Stop scheme which grants smokers a lifeline in the form of a free vape kit. This great opportunity is made all the more appealing by the fact you will receive brief support from a trained stop smoking advisor that will increase the likelihood of beating smoking for good. For more information please visit our dedicated council website at www.swindon.gov.uk/swaptostop , where you can apply and start your journey to a smokefree life of better health.
