Experts say e-cigarettes 95% less harmful than tobacco

Wednesday 19th August 2015 08:58 EDT
 
 

Experts who put together a report for Public Health England found that e-cigarettes are 95% less harmful, compared to tobacco.

It has also been suggested that e-cigarettes could be prescribed on the NHS in the future, to help people quit smoking.

E-cigarettes have increasing become very popular and currently have 2.6 million adults using them in Britain.

Although some health campaigns are backing the findings, the British Medical Association has expressed their concerns.

One of the authors of the report, Prof Ann McNeill from King's College London, stated that e-cigarettes could be a “game-changer” in public health. She said, “At the moment, 80,000 people [in England] die every year as a result of cigarette smoking. If everybody who was smoking switched to e-cigarettes that would reduce to about 4,000 deaths a year. That's the best estimate at the moment. It may well be much, much lower than that.”

Prof Kevin Fenton, director of health and wellbeing at Public Health England said, “E-cigarettes are not completely risk-free but when compared to smoking, evidence shows they carry just a fraction of the harm. The problem is people increasingly think they are at least as harmful and this may be keeping millions of smokers from quitting.”  




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