Revealed: The habit you didn’t know could DOUBLE your life insurance policy
- Vaping has risen rapidly as an estimated 4.3million Brits are regular users
- They produce chemicals which are liked to fatal lung and heart conditions
Vaping can double your life insurance premium, analysis shows.
Although widely regarded as safer than smoking, major insurers consider e-cigs to be just as dangerous as their tobacco equivalents.
A 50-year-old vaper has to pay £60.24 per month, according to the comparison site myTribe Insurance.
Yet someone of the same age who did not vape would only have to fork out £26.94 under the same plans.
The quote relates to an office worker with no critical illnesses who is in good health. It is based on the average price from 16 leading UK insurers.
A 50-year-old vaper has to pay £60.24 per month, according to the comparison site myTribe Insurance. Yet someone of the same age who did not vape would only have to fork out £26.94 under the same plans
Some insurance companies charge vapers nearly three times the amount than non-vapers, depending on their age
E-cig usage has soared to record levels in the UK, with an estimated 4.3m Brits now regular vapers.
Chris Steele, founder of myTribe Insurance, said: ‘Most insurers consider vaping, as well as nicotine gum and patches, to be the same as smoking, so you’ll pay significantly more than a non-smoker.
‘Long-term effects of vaping… are still unknown, so insurers are erring on the side of caution for the time being.
‘As they get more data, we may see this change.
‘But for the time being, vapers are treated the same as smokers in respect to life insurance.’
Some insurance companies charge vapers nearly three times the amount than non-vapers, depending on their age.
A 50-year-old vaper would be slapped with an £80.84 monthly bill if they took out insurance with Royal London.
But if they quit and stayed nicotine free for 12 months, they would only be charged £29.13 — saving them £15,513 over a 25-year term.
Craig Paterson, chief underwriter at Royal London, said: ‘When it comes to life insurance premiums, smokers usually pay around twice as much as their non-smoking counterparts, rising to nearly three times as much for older smokers.
‘So there’s potential savings, on top of not buying cigarettes, as well as health benefits to be had.’
Some insurers say, in their experience, many users of vaping products will also smoke or have a history of smoking which can also be why their premiums are higher.
Tests on e-cigarettes confiscated from youngsters found they contained dangerous levels of lead, nickel and chromium. Some were almost 10 times above safe limits. Exposure to lead can impair brain development, while the other two metals can trigger blood clotting
Almost 1,000 serious adverse reactions to e-cigs have been logged by Britain’s health watchdog including blood, nervous system and respiratory disorders, as well as cancer and injuries like burns. This includes five deaths linked to the devices. Latest figures show the proportion of adults using e-cigs in the UK increased last year to the highest rate on record, at 8.3 per cent, according to the charity Action on Smoking and Health. This accounts for the roughly 4.3million people across the country
Aviva life insurance offered similar to Royal London, as they quoted £84.84 per month for regular vapers and just £35.79 for non-smokers.
A spokesperson for Aviva said: ‘When applying for life insurance, applicants will be asked about their smoking status, which includes the use of products containing nicotine.
‘As smoking is a known risk factor for the development of cardiovascular disease and cancer, premiums for customers who smoke or use products containing nicotine are higher than for non-smokers.
‘At present, there is a lack of long-term evidence available on the health impacts of vaping.
‘And in our experience, many users of vaping products will also use conventional tobacco products or have a history of using these products.’
Other insurers offer much lower rates, but the difference between smoking still doubles the premium.
Liverpool Victoria (LV) quotes £44.11 for the same type of cover for someone who vapes and just £18.51 for those who haven’t vaped or smoked in the last 12 months.
In a bid to tackle the lack of information about long-term health impacts, doctors could be forced to ask all patients if they have ever used the gadget and add it to their medical records.
This is part of a major review by the British Medical Association into the dangers, marketing and illegal sales of e-cigarettes.
Concerns are growing across the UK as vaping is not just an adult addiction but a potentially lethal issue for children. Usage rates have almost doubled in a decade.
Doctors fear there could be a wave of lung disease, dental issues and even cancer in the coming decades in people who took up the habit at a young age.
E-cigs produce many dangerous chemicals linked to fatal lung and heart conditions.
This includes acute lung injury, COPD, lung cancer, heart disease and non-infectious endocarditis.
The Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health warned that e-cigarettes ‘are not a risk-free product and can be just as addictive, if not more so, than traditional cigarettes’.
Shock data last month revealed a record 11.6 per cent of 11 to 17-year-olds in Britain have now tried vaping. This is up on 7.7 per cent last year and twice as high as rates seen a decade ago ¿ before the UK’s kid vaping epidemic blew up
NHS Digital data, based on the smoking, drinking and drug use among young people in England survey for the year 2021, showed 30 per cent of children in Yorkshire and the Humber have used a vape
The brightly coloured displays are seen in shops on streets such as Oxford Street and labelled as toy, sweet and gift shops
E-cigarettes themselves have been linked to five deaths in Britain since 2010.
None of the fatalities were proven to have been caused directly by vaping, but health chiefs, tasked with policing the safety of e-cigs, admit there is ‘a suspicion’ they may have been to blame.
Two of the deaths logged through the decades-old Yellow Card system were caused by heart disorders, including one cardiac arrest.
Respiratory complications were blamed for the other three deaths, with one caused by inhalation of fat — a known potential consequence of vaping.
Almost 1,000 serious adverse reactions to e-cigs have also been logged by Britain’s health watchdog, including blood, nervous system and respiratory disorders, as well as cancer and injuries such as burns.
While Rishi Sunak pledges to crack down on the issue, rainbow displays of the gadgets still litter high streets across the UK.
Predatory manufacturers lure kids in with flavours such as bubblegum and cotton candy and some shops even sell the devices next to sweets for as little as £5.
E-cigs allow people to inhale nicotine in a vapour – produced by heating a liquid that typically contains propylene glycol, glycerine, flavourings, and other chemicals.
Unlike traditional cigarettes, they do not contain tobacco or produce tar or carbon – two of the most dangerous elements.
But some have been found to contain over 9.6 times the safe level of nickel and 6.6 times the safe level of chromium.
Everything you need to know about e-cigarettes
How much nicotine is in an e-cigarette?
There are many different brands of e-cigarettes, containing various different nicotine levels.
The legal amount of nicotine in an e-liquid capacity in the UK is 20mg/ml equating to between 600 and 800 puffs.
The Elf Bar 600, one of Britain’s most popular vapes, is advertised as coming in nicotine strengths of 0mg, 10mg and 20mg.
How many cigarettes are ‘in’ an e-cigarette?
The Elf Bar 600 contains the equivalent to 48 cigarettes, analysts say.
It delivers 600 puffs before it needs to be thrown away, meaning, in theory, every 12.5 puffs equate to one cigarette.
Experts say for many e-cigarettes, 100 puffs equate to ten normal cigarettes.
Elf Bars are a brand of e-cigarettes often sold in snazzy colours and with child-friendly names and flavours, like blue razz lemonade and green gummy bear
Is vaping better for your health than cigarettes?
Vaping products are considered to be better than cigarettes as users are exposed to fewer toxins and at lower levels, according to the NHS.
The health service adds that vaping instead of smoking cigarettes reduces your exposure to toxins that can cause cancer, lung disease and diseases of the heart and circulation, such as strokes and heart attacks.
Public Health England, which is now defunct, published an expert independent review in 2015 concluding that e-cigarettes are around 95 per cent less harmful than cigarettes.
However vaping is not risk-free, as while levels in tobacco-products are much higher, e-cigarettes still contain harmful toxins, according to a study by researchers from the Medical University of Silesia in Poland.
And Dr Onkar Mudhar, a London dentist who posts videos on TikTok, said Elf bars can cause gum inflammation, swelling and bleeding.
He said this is because nicotine dries out your mouth and reduces saliva, causing irritation from a build-up of bacteria and food that can’t get washed away.
Nearly 350 hospitalisations due to vaping were logged in England in 2022, which are thought to be mainly down to respiratory problems, such as shortness of breath, chest pain, lung inflammation and, in severe cases, respiratory failure.
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