E-cig using teens more likely to switch to conventional tobacco use

It added: “Best estimates show e-cigarettes are 95% less harmful to your health than normal cigarettes, and when supported by a smoking cessation service, help most smokers to quit tobacco altogether”.

Rosanna O’Connor, director of alcohol, drugs and tobacco at Public Health England, said: ‘The danger comes because many smokers who have not tried e-cigarettes say they are afraid they are too unsafe. they keep smoking because they wrongly believe the alternative is worse’.

Emerging evidence suggests some of the highest successful quitting rates are now seen among smokers who use an e-cigarette and also receive additional support from local “stop smoking” services. Professor Ann McNeill, of King’s College London and another independent author of the review, said e-cigarettes could be a “game changer in public health”. The review could prove quite beneficial for the supporters of e-cigarette advocates, who already term it as a tool for adults to quit smoking.

She said: “Despite making great strides to reduce smoking, tobacco is still our biggest killer”.

Finally, University of Michigan School of Public Health dean Ken Warner makes it pretty simple: “Smokeless tobacco is, without a question of a doubt, far less harmful than cigarette smoking”. Electronic cigarettes are also now uncommon, with an estimated 2.6 million users in Britain. “While we cannot conclude that e-cigarette use directly leads to smoking, this research raises concerns that recent increases in youth e-cigarette use could ultimately perpetuate the epidemic of smoking-related illness”.

Should e-cigarettes be free?

It criticized media campaigns that have called e-cigarettes equally or even more harmful than smoking that could serve as a “gateway” to tobacco cigarettes among teenagers.

Thousands of smokers who are having problems quitting could be prescribed e-cigarettes on the NHS after a landmark review ruled the devices are much less harmful than tobacco and can play a pivotal role in stop smoking strategies. Based on the fact that 80,000 British people die every single year because of smoking, experts have come to the conclusion that these deaths could be reduced by 4,000 a year, if all the smokers in Britain would switch from regular cigarettes to electronic ones.