Electronic Cigarettes

(asked on 12th November 2018) - View Source

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to make people who smoke aware of the effects on public health of vaping.


Answered by
Steve Brine Portrait
Steve Brine
This question was answered on 20th November 2018

The Government has consistently highlighted that quitting smoking and nicotine use is the best way to improve health. E-cigarettes are not risk free. However, the evidence is increasingly clear that vaping is significantly less harmful to health than smoking tobacco and can be particularly useful in supporting smokers to quit, especially when combined with stop smoking services.

In the Tobacco Control Plan for England, published in July 2017, the Government committed Public Health England (PHE) to annually updating their evidence report on e-cigarettes and other novel nicotine delivery systems until the end of Parliament in 2022. PHE’s latest report was published on the 6 February 2018 and is available at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/684963/Evidence_review_of_e-cigarettes_and_heated_tobacco_products_2018.pdf

PHE’s most recent evidence review argues that e-cigarette use, alone or in combination with licensed medication and behavioural support from a stop smoking service, appears to be helpful in the short term, and that e-cigarettes have contributed to tens of thousands of additional quitters in England.

The PHE evidence review concluded that “to date there have been no identified health risks of passive vaping to by-standers”. PHE have produced guidance for organisations on developing appropriate vaping policies for public places and workplaces, which should be evidence based and support smokers to quit whilst managing any identified risks.

The Government is committed to reducing public health harms caused by smoking. PHE retain responsibility for the provision of information regarding vaping, e-cigarettes and other nicotine delivery systems to protect public health; and have committed to include messages about the relative safety of e-cigarettes within quit smoking campaigns such as the annual Stoptober campaign.

PHE continue to provide advice on quitting smoking, highlighting the potential role of e-cigarettes in doing so. PHE’s latest Health Matters blog, Stop Smoking: What works? Provides advice to smokers on different quitting options, including e-cigarettes as well as nicotine replacement therapy and prescription medicines. This is available at the following link:

https://publichealthmatters.blog.gov.uk/category/health-matters/

Reticulating Splines