Call for smokers to be ‘healthy’ vapers

HEALTH chiefs are actively encouraging smokers to turn to vaping in a bid to quit cigarettes for good and are even suggesting making e-cigarettes available on prescription.

The switch could help prevent illness or even save the lives of scores of Hinckley and Bosworth residents each year.

East Midlands Public Health England officials have made the call on the back of a new review which suggests e-cigarettes pose only a small fraction of the risks of real ones and switching completely from tobacco to vaping conveys substantial health benefits.

The research shows e-cigarettes could be contributing to at least 20,000 successful new quits per year as well as being linked to improved quit success rates.

However, considerable misunderstanding still surrounds vaping and its affects and the substance nicotine in general.

According to PHE less than 10% of adults understand that most of the harms to health from smoking are not caused by nicotine and evidence does not support concerns e-cigarettes are a route into smoking among young people.

PHE’s evidence review comes just a few weeks after a US National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine report on e-cigarettes.

Their conclusion on e-cigarette safety also finds that based on the available evidence “e-cigarettes are likely to be far less harmful than combustible tobacco cigarettes.”

In Hinckley and Bosworth the most recent figures reveal some 150 people a year die from smoking related illnesses.

Ann Crawford, deputy director for Health and Well-being at PHE (East Midlands) said: “Smoking is a deadly habit. Each year it kills around 7,000 people in the East Midlands and there are 47,000 hospital admissions as a result of smoking - that’s equivalent to 128 every day.

“E-cigarettes do not produce tar and carbon monoxide - two of the main toxins in conventional cigarette smoke - and there are currently over 208,000 e-cigarette users in the East Midlands.

“We would urge smokers in the East Midlands to consider making the shift to e-cigarettes to help them quit.”

Professor John Newton, director for health improvement at PHE said: “Our new review reinforces the finding that vaping is a fraction of the risk of smoking, at least 95% less harmful, and of negligible risk to bystanders. Yet over half of smokers either falsely believe that vaping is as harmful as smoking or just don’t know.”

Professor Ann McNeill, lead author and professor of tobacco addiction at King’s College London said: “When people smoke tobacco cigarettes, they inhale a lethal mix of 7,000 smoke constituents, 70 of which are known to cause cancer.

“People smoke for the nicotine but contrary to what the vast majority believe, nicotine causes little if any of the harm. The toxic smoke is the culprit and is the overwhelming cause of all the tobacco-related disease and death.”

Studies show the greatest quit success is among those who combine using an e-cigarette with support from a local stop smoking service.

PHE say healthcare professionals should provide behavioural support for people wanting to use e-cigarettes as a way to quit, hospitals should ensure e-cigarettes, alongside other nicotine replacement therapies are for sale in on-site shops and smoking shelters should be removed with vaping policies to support smokers.

PHE also say the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) should continue their work in regulating and licensing e-cigarette products and support manufacturers to expedite the licensing of e-cigarettes as medicinal quit aids.

PHE believes there is compelling evidence that e-cigarettes be made available to NHS patients.