More on Vaping
Public Health England (PHE) has come out stating that e-cigarettes should be available on the NHS on prescription as well as smoking areas around NHS hospitals be turned into vaping lounges. They are claiming that these are 95% safer than cigarettes and should be widely available. Oh they also say that non-smokers should not try them. Interesting, because if they were as safe as they are claiming why would there be an issue about non-smokers using them?
E-cigarettes may well be all that PHE say they are, but let’s be fair. First of all they are created by the same people who brought us cigarettes in the first place. I would be highly dubious that these companies all of a sudden have come up with something safe after all these years. Second, these things are not cheap, I have always been against the idea of any form of Nicotine Replacement Therapy being available on prescription, as their efficacy is highly suspect and what has been reported is insignificant statistically. And yes, they are expensive. especially for a health service which needs to watch it’s pennies. Finally, e-cigarette research is fairly new, and there is no way to predict any potential long term issues caused by using them.
I appreciate that PHE wants people to stop, but to look at e-cigarettes as being a magic bullet to me seems incredibly naive with potential long term consequences that we have not even got a grasp of yet.
