Nicotine vaping is substantially less harmful than smoking. It's also one of the most effective tools for quitting smoking. Vaping is not completely harmless and we only recommend it for adult smokers, to support quitting smoking and staying quit.

How to quit vaping when you feel ready

Once you have been vaping for a while and feel sure you will not go back to smoking, you should aim to quit vaping too. To keep yourself on track, it's a good idea to quit vaping gradually. You can do this in a number of ways:

• gradually reduce the strength of nicotine in your e-liquid (if you are using a disposable vape, you could switch to a refillable device to do this)
• extend the time between vaping
• set rules for yourself about where you do and do not vape, for example only outside of the home or only on breaks at work

Do not rush this process. Only reduce your vaping frequency or nicotine strength when you feel you will not go back to smoking and do not have to puff more to compensate. Your local Stop Smoking Service can give more advice on quitting vaping if you need it.

If at any point you feel at risk of going back to smoking, increase your nicotine strength or vaping frequency until the feelings go away.

If you prefer to stop vaping in one step, you can ask your pharmacist or stop smoking adviser about switching to a suitable nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) product. This is an alternative way of cutting down your nicotine use until you are ready to stop completely.

Remember, if you have stopped smoking completely you have already achieved a huge step in protecting your health, so don't worry if it takes you a while to stop vaping.