Public Health England says e-cigarettes 95% less harmful

The Guardian reports:

Vaping is safer than smoking and could lead to demise of the traditional cigarette,Public Health England (PHE) has said in the first official recognition that e-cigarettes are less damaging to health than smoking tobacco.

The health body concluded that, on “the best estimate so far”, e-cigarettes are about 95% less harmful than tobacco cigarettes and could one day be dispensed as a licensed medicine in an alternative to anti-smoking products such as patches.

While stressing that e-cigarettes are not free from risk, PHE now believes that e-cigarettes “have the potential to make a significant contribution to the endgame for tobacco”.

Yet in New Zealand the Ministry of Health has the sale of e-cigarettes effectively banned. You can buy tobacco in any dairy but can-t buy e-cigarettes. Madness.

The review found that almost all of the 2.6 million adults in the UK now thought to be using e-cigarettes are current or former conventional smokers, most using them to help them quit tobacco or to prevent them going back to smoking.

There was no suggestion that the products were a gateway into tobacco smoking, with less than 1% of adults or young people who had never smoked becoming regular cigarette users.

If the Govt is serious about a smoke free NZ by 2025, then they should be making it easier for e-cigarettes to be sold in NZ.