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HealthWatch: NHS endorses e-cigs; RPS responds

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HealthWatch: NHS endorses e-cigs; RPS responds

Health officials have endorsed e-cigarettes for the first time, claiming they are a game-changer in the battle with smoking, according to The Times (August 19).

Doctors should be able to prescribe e-cigarettes, Public Health England said yesterday, as it tried to debunk the myth that “vaping” was as bad for the health as inhaling tobacco smoke.

If all of England’s eight million smokers switched to e-cigarettes overnight more than 75,000 lives a year would be saved, experts said. Not only are e-cigarettes 20 times less dangerous than tobacco, they are also among the most effective quitting aids, they added.

Kevin Fenton, director of health and wellbeing at Public Health England, said: “Smoking remains England’s number one killer and the best thing a smoker can do is to quit completely, now and for ever. E-cigarettes are not completely risk-free but when compared to smoking, evidence shows they carry just a fraction of the harm.”

His comments came as Public Health England published an independent review of the evidence on e-cigarettes. Ann McNeill, of King’s College London, said: “In my view smokers should try vaping, and vapers should stop smoking entirely. E-cigarettes could be a game-changer in public health in particular by reducing the enormous health inequalities caused by smoking.”

[update 3.40pm]

RPS responds

Responding to the review, Royal Pharmaceutical Society director for England, Howard Duff, said: "E-cigarettes are currently unlicensed products with no standardisation of safety, quality or efficacy. As such, we believe they should not be sold or advertised from pharmacies.

“We echo the views of PHE and support the original intention of the MHRA to regulate e-cigarettes as medicinal products as an aid to smoking cessation. The licensing process would align e-cigarettes with other nicotine reduction therapies and ensure quality control and standardisation of products.

“E-cigarettes contain less harmful toxins than tobacco but still contain nicotine, which is an addictive substance. As they are a very new product, no-one can be sure of the consequences of long-term use on health and further research is needed to determine this.”

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