Stoptober quit smoking campaign to back e-cigarettes for the first time

Thousands of people will pledge to quit smoking next month as part of Stoptober.
Vaping is now the most popular method of quitting smoking
Shutterstock
Harriet Pavey21 September 2017

Quit-smoking campaign Stoptober is to support the use of e-cigarettes for the first time, despite warnings from health experts.

New television adverts launched by Public Health England (PHE) encourage smokers to use e-cigarettes, also known as vapes, to overcome their addiction.

But on Tuesday, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) issued guidance expressing caution about the risks and benefits of vaping.

Nice said: “The draft guideline does not list e-cigarettes as recommended aids to stop smoking however it does say that advice should be offered on their use."

Nice advised that patients should be told that “there is currently little evidence on their long term benefits or harms.”

E-cigarettes are currently not available on the NHS. But on the NHS website, they are described as “a great way to help combat nicotine cravings” carrying “a fraction of the risk of cigarettes”.

E-cigarettes are recommended on the NHS website
PA wire

Latest figures show 15.5 per cent of over 18s smoked in England in 2016. This is a significant decrease from the year 2000, when over a quarter of adults smoked.

But as smoking has decreased, vaping has increased. About one in 20 people over 16 regularly uses e-cigarettes.

1.5 million people have taken part in Stoptober since it launched in 2011, many of them receiving free one-on-one support from a medical professional via the NHS.

Vaping has since become the most popular method of stopping smoking, with 53 per cent of people using e-cigarettes to try and quit.

The Committees of Advertising Practice (CAP), which writes advertising rules in the UK, said it is considering changes to its codes to remove the current prohibition on health claims being made for e-cigarettes.

A CAP spokesman said: "If the proposal is eventually approved, advertisers will be able to make claims about the health benefits of e-cigarettes relative to tobacco".

The latest figures from the Office for National Statistics estimate that there were around 79,000 smoking-related deaths in 2015.

A spokesman from the United Kingdom Vaping Industry Association said: "It feels that at last the tide is beginning to turn; the UK is leading the way on vaping as an effective tool to reduce and stop smoking related disease."

Stoptober begins on October 1.

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