Written by Menswear Style in Health & Fitness on the 12th October 2015

With Public Health England announcing in August that E-cigarettes are 95% less harmful than tobacco and could be prescribed on the NHS in future to help smokers quit, a fresh wave of comments and outcry commenced on an already contentious issue. While various health campaigners welcomed the finding, the British Medical Association expressed caution at the statement. Public health experts have been divided over the issue ever since vaping first took off, and is it grows and grows in popularity, with 2.6 million adults now using the smoking alternative, it is becoming more prescient to have a solid stance on vaping.

So should smokers get free e-cigarettes on the NHS? While smoking cigarettes leads to the death of up to 100,000 people every year in the UK, and in theory we should be using every tool available to help even a fraction of this number quit, e-cigarettes have become so much more than a quitting aid.

Nicotine substitutes - whether chewing gum, spray, or patches – have been available on prescription for years and have helped a large number of people stop smoking and all evidence suggest that e-cigs are equally effective. While many e-cig users aren’t using them as a quitting aid, any prescription e-cigs should be on a 12 week replacement programme similar to how the patches are prescribed. This is where concerns should arise about e-cigarettes being available on the NHS – they have never been marketed or viewed as a quitting aid per-se and have always been an alternative to smoking tobacco. 

Because it is such a new technology, there is a lack of scientific studies into the role e-cigarettes can play in quitting. A recent study by the Addiction medical journal found that when people wanted to quit smoking 60 per cent were more likely to succeed using e-cigarettes than by any other means. Though this study is a step in the right direction, with a lack of long term studies and a plethora of anecdotal evidence from e-cig users, it is hard to differentiate between those who quit for a while or those who quit for good.

This is one reason why anecdotal evidence has become such a big area for the vindication of vaping as a quitting aid – users often talk about how the shape of the device helps them deal with issues such as having something to hold and puff on (a key reason why patches and gum have never worked for them) and it allows the user to actively combat temptations of social smoking when with friends. 

But with this in mind the action of quitting is always down to the individual’s choice and their own willpower and intent, and offering another quitting aid no matter how alluring isn’t going to see an influx in quitters – it’s just another device added to a list of quitting aids already available to smokers already. E-cigarettes may taste better, may be safer, may be cleaner, but they’re certainly not healthy. By painting them as the ultimate alternative to smoking with no side-effects it doesn’t encourage anyone to quit it just encourages them to switch.

Is vaping healthier than smoking? Should Smokers Get Free E-cigarettes on the NHS? We discuss this health issue here.