Royal College of Physicians says promote e-cigarettes
This is a huge announcement by the Royal College of Physicians:
A new report released today from the Royal College of Physicians, ‘Nicotine without smoke: tobacco harm reduction’ concludes that e-cigarettes are likely to be beneficial to UK public health. Smokers can therefore be reassured and encouraged to use them, and the public can be reassured that e-cigarettes are much safer than smoking.
Yet in NZ it is illegal to sell them, while legal to sell cigarettes.
The Royal College has done a 200 page report which concludes:
- E-cigarettes are not a gateway to smoking
- E-cigarettes do not result in normalisation of smoking
- E-cigarettes can act as a gateway from smoking
- Long-term harm from e-cigarettes is likely to be very small, and substantially smaller than that arising from tobacco smoking
- Long-term health risks associated with e-cigarettes are unlikely to exceed 5% of those associated with smoked tobacco products, and may well be substantially lower than this figure.
This report is from the Royal College of Physicians, not any industry body.
If the Government is serious about getting cigarette use in NZ under 5% by 2025, they should urgently be reviewing our laws and regulations to both allow e-cigarette sales (implements are but not nicotine)/