Kuwait Times

Lawmakers want British vaping rules relaxed to help smokers quit

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LONDON: Vaping rules should be relaxed to allow the promotion of e-cigarettes as tools to help tobacco smokers quit, British lawmakers said on Friday. This could include prescribin­g medically licensed e-cigarettes to assist smoking cessation efforts. Vaping, or using e-cigarettes, is estimated to be 95 percent less harmful than smoking convention­al ones, according to the British parliament’s science and technology committee, which sees big health benefits if smokers can be encouraged to switch.

There is still fierce global debate as to whether e-cigarettes represent a health risk or a benefit, since their longterm effects are unclear. A study found that e-cigarette vapour may cause adverse changes in lung cells. But the British lawmakers concluded that the balance clearly favored vaping over tobacco smoking and it urged greater regulatory leniency to allow advertisin­g of the relative benefits of e-cigarettes.

It also called for incentives to promote them as a less harmful option, in the form of lower levels of taxation, a relaxation of curbs on their use in public places and a review of approval systems for prescribin­g them as quitsmokin­g products. “Concerns that e-cigarettes could be a gateway to convention­al smoking, including for young non-smokers, have not materializ­ed,” said committee chairman Norman Lamb. “If used correctly, e-cigarettes could be a key weapon in the NHS’s (National Health Service) stop smoking arsenal.” The charity Action on Smoking and Health welcomed the committee’s findings and said allowing e-cigarettes to be prescribed by doctors could be particular­ly important to people on low incomes and those with high levels of addiction.

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