Public Health England has endorsed the use of e-cigarettes and hopes they become a widely available tool for smoking cessation. Helena Beer reports

Public Health England (PHE) has come out in support of e-cigarettes as an effective method of smoking cessation, following its independent review that found them to be 95 per cent less harmful to health than tobacco.

The review concluded that smokers who are struggling to quit the habit, as well as those who cannot or do not want to quit, should be encouraged to try e-cigarettes.

Cigarette smoking in the UK is in long-term decline and while there have been fears that e-cigarettes may threaten this, Professor Ann McNeill from King’s College London, and independent author of the review, explained: “There is no evidence that e-cigarettes are undermining England’s falling smoking rates. Instead the evidence consistently finds that e-cigarettes are another tool for stopping smoking and in my view smokers should try vaping, and vapers should stop smoking entirely.”

The review's findings suggested that e-cigarettes have the potential to help smokers quit the habit by significantly reducing their cigarette consumption and helping to reduce smoking related disease and death. To this end, Professor McNeill went so far as saying “e-cigarettes could be a game changer in public health”.

Despite this, nearly half the population (44.8 per cent) believe e-cigarettes to be as harmful, if not more so, than smoking. In response, the review stated: “We want to see all health and social care professionals providing accurate advice on the relative risks of smoking and e-cigarette use, and providing effective referral routes into stop smoking services.”

It added that PHE would “commission the National Centre for Smoking Cessation and Training to provide training and support to stop smoking practitioners to improve their skills and confidence in advising clients on the use of e-cigarettes”.

PHE’s ultimate aim is for doctors to be able to prescribe e-cigarettes and for them to be a widely available tool for smoking cessation among all healthcare bodies.

The review’s evidence provides a foundation for potential policy development and changes to public health practice once new regulations for e-cigarettes are introduced in May 2016 and further research on the subject has been carried out.

Responding to PHE's review, the Royal Pharmaceutical Society’s director for England, Howard Duff, said: “E-cigarettes are currently unlicensed products with no standardisation of safety, quality or efficacy. As such, we believe they should not be sold or advertised from pharmacies.

The RPS said that it echos the views of PHE and supports the original intention of The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency to regulate e-cigarettes as medicinal products as an aid to smoking cessation. "The licensing process would align e-cigarettes with other nicotine reduction therapies and ensure quality control and standardisation of products," said Mr Duff.

“E-cigarettes contain less harmful toxins than tobacco but still contain nicotine, which is an addictive substance," he added. "As they are a very new product, no-one can be sure of the consequences of long-term use on health and further research is needed to determine this.”