The UK Vaping Industry Association (UKVIA) welcomes a public health watchdog’s backing of vaping as legitimate method for helping people to quit smoking.
It says the government health watchdog NICE’s newly published guidance on use of vaping within NHS settings and smoking cessation services is yet another win for advocates of e-cigarettes’ effectiveness in helping people quit combustible tobacco while promoting harm reduction.
Called “Tobacco: preventing uptake, promoting quitting and treating dependence”, the guidance says vaping should be “accessible to adults who smoke” and included alongside other nicotine replacement therapies such as gums and patches.
In addition, smoking cessation teams should also include e-cigarettes when they “advise people (as appropriate for their age) that the following options, when combined with behavioural support, are more likely to result in them successfully stopping smoking”.
NICE points out that people providing stop-smoking support or advice should emphasise that:
- Most smoking-related health problems are caused by other components in tobacco smoke, not by the nicotine
- Any risks from using medicinally licensed nicotine-containing products or other stop-smoking pharmacotherapies are much lower than those of smoking
Dave Cross – Planet of the Vapes – 2021-12-06.
Want More Investigative Content?
