LONDON, Sept. 16 (Xinhua) -- There are now 3.2 million e-cigarette users, or vapers, in Britain, which is a trend that more smokers are switching to e-cigarette, according to new survey results released by the Action on Smoking and Health (ASH), a public health charity.

Over 12,000 adults were interviewed in the survey. Of the vapers, over half have quit smoking and 40 percent are current smokers who are trying to quit.

Fast growth could be seen in local vaper numbers for the past few years. The number for 2018 is already more than four times that of 2012.

But still ASH found that about a third of smokers said they had never even tried an e-cigarette, with concerns about addiction topping the list of reasons why they haven't tried one.

The government's Public Health England (PHE) has proposed that e-cigarettes should be made available on prescription in the coming years so as to help people stop smoking. An independent report published by the PHE showed that e-cigarettes are at least 95 percent less harmful than smoking.

"UK policy is on the right track with thousands of smokers making the switch to vaping and improving their health and little sign of non-smokers taking up vaping. But even more smokers could benefit if e-cigarettes were licenced as medicines and available on prescription," said Deborah Arnott, chief executive of ASH.?