ELECTRONIC or 'E-cigarettes' have failed to take off in Spain, with exactly 50% believing they are every bit as harmful to health as the real thing.
And the number of E-cigarette smokers – or 'vapers' – has plummeted since their initial boom two years ago, falling by 72% and now sitting at just 220,000 people in Spain.
Only 17.4% believe E-cigarettes are not a health risk either to the 'vaper' or the 'passive vaper', and a mere 21.2% say they help smokers give up – but 52% say they do not.
Around a third and a quarter respectively say they have no idea of any possible risk, or of any possible benefits.
Those in the Basque Country – 28.8% - and in Catalunya, the Canary Islands and Andalucía (24%) are most convinced E-cigarettes help with giving up smoking, whilst respondents of the study based in Aragón, Navarra, Cantabria and La Rioja had the least faith in them as a solution, with between 10% and 13% on average believing they could be a useful tool in kicking the habit.
Asturias' residents are the least likely to fear health problems from E-cigarettes, at just 29%, but those in the land-locked western region of Extremadura, the southern region of Andalucía, and north-eastern Catalunya said, ino 53%, 54% and 55% of cases, that they felt vaping was dangerous.
Younger people seemed more likely to have faith in E-cigarettes as a tool in the fight against tobacco-smoking addiction, with 28.9% of the 18-24 age group saying they believed 'vaping' would help, compared with just 12.8% of the over-65s.
The surge in popularity of E-cigarettes around two years ago led to a proliferation of shops selling the gadgets themselves and refill cartridges opening, and to the national government's regulating when and where they could be used.
Read more at thinkSPAIN.com