In a bid to cut down the number of smokers, e-cigarettes could soon be prescribed by the NHS.
Almost 64,000 people died due to smoking related illness in 2019, says the UK Government's Health Secretary Sajid Javid.
He added that the UK Government is determined to make England smoke-free by 2030, with Scotland having its own plans to raise a 'tobacco-free generation' by 2034.
New rules set out by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) will permit submission of products from vaping firms in order to gain approval, much like the method used for medicines and vaccines.
E-cigarettes, once approved, would be prescribed on a case-by-case basis to patients, reports The Mirror.
Javid said that this move to prescribe e-cigarettes on the NHS “has the potential to tackle the stark disparities in smoking rates across the country.”
But are e-cigarettes bad for you, too?
Here is all you need to know about the alternative.
Do e-cigarettes help you quit smoking?
With 27.2% of smokers using vaping products compared with 18.2% using other products like patches and gum, e-cigarettes are being described by the government as “highly effective” to help people quit smoking.
Deborah Arnott, of the campaign group Action on Smoking and Health (ASH), has said that smoking is likely to have caused more premature deaths in the UK in the past year than the Covid pandemic.
She added that the country needs "new tools in the toolbox, such as medicinally licensed e-cigarettes.”
Are e-cigarettes bad for you?
E-cigarettes contain nicotine and are not fully risk-free.
The NHS says: “The liquid and vapour contain some potentially harmful chemicals also found in cigarette smoke.”
But experts believe that its still less harmful than smoking tobacco which remains one of Britain’s biggest killers with almost 6.1 million people in the country being smokers.
However, in 2019 Professor Thomas Munzel from the University Medical Centre in Mainz, Germany said that there’s very little evidence to support claims that e-cigarettes are a healthy alternative to tobacco and that the vapes can be just as addictive and dangerous.
Public health experts have also raised concerns about young people who have never smoked before becoming addicted to vaping. In response, the government has strongly advised non-smokers and children against trying vaping.
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