In what can only be described as a boon to pro-vapers everywhere, the UK’s Royal College of Physicians recommend the use of e-cigarettes to help smokers quit, saying it is safer and effective as a smoking cessation tool. The 200-page report also says that with the right regulation, vaping can help millions of people yearly. The same report also says that the belief that vaping is a gateway to smoking is unfounded.
E-cigarettes are generally safer because instead of combustion, the device atomizes liquid to create vapor. In this manner, only nicotine is administered to the body without the carbon monoxide and other chemicals and compounds found in cigarettes smoke.
As long-term health hazards, Public Health England says that e-cigarettes are 95% safer than cigarettes. Despite this, the devices are not a hundred percent risk-free. Vaping is a relatively new thing and according to Prof Simon Capewell of the Faculty of Public Health, “We don’t know enough yet about the long-term effects of vaping on people’s health, which is why we need more research. The best thing anyone can do if they want to quit smoking is talk to their GP: there’s solid evidence that NHS quit-smoking services help people kick the habit for good.”
However, the co-author of the RCP report, Prof John Britton, says that e-cigarettes are a huge plus for public health and should be “encouraged and endorsed.” Britton adds, “The public need to be reassured this is not a new nicotine epidemic in the making. E-cigarettes have very little downside and a lot of potential benefit.”
Dr Tim Ballard, from the Royal College of GPs, adds, “Moving forward we would be looking for clear evidence that making e-cigarettes available on prescription as part of a wider smoking cessation scheme is a wise use of both scant NHS funds and GP practice resources, before the College could get behind it.”
“It is not just the cost of the product that needs taken into account, but the time and resources that are involved in assessing patients, and monitoring their progress over a prolonged period of time. We reiterate our calls for NICE to take a leading role in establishing whether making e-cigarettes available on prescription is the best way forward.”
Finally, a spokesperson from the Department of Health says, “The best thing a smoker can do for their health is to quit smoking. We know that there are now over a million people who have completely replaced smoking with e-cigarettes and that the evidence indicates that they are significantly less harmful to health than smoking tobacco. We want to see a wide range of good quality e-cigarettes on the market including licensed products whose safety, quality and effectiveness are independently assured.”
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