UK health officials endorse e-cigarettes
Print Edition
BRITISH health officials have for the first time endorsed e-cigarettes, saying they are 95 percent safer than tobacco equivalents and suggesting doctors should be able to prescribe them to smokers trying to quit.
E-cigarettes, which allow users to inhale nicotine-laced vapor but contain no tobacco, have surged in popularity in recent years but health bodies have so far been wary of advocating them as a safer alternative.
Governments from California to India have tried to regulate their use more strictly, many fearing they are a gateway to tobacco smoking among teenagers. The World Health Organization has also called for curbs.
But in a study published yesterday, Public Health England (PHE) an agency of Britain's Department of Health, backed their use.
“E-cigarettes are not completely risk-free but when compared to smoking, evidence shows they carry just a fraction of the harm,” said PHE's Professor Kevin Fenton.
The study said as most of the chemicals that cause smoking-related diseases are absent in e-cigarettes, with the current best estimate that e-cigarette use is around 95 percent less harmful to health than smoking, governments should offer them to people looking to quit.
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