By Marry Jane - Oct. 18th
*Smoking is harmful to health, minors are prohibited from using e-cigarettes, and non-smokers are not recommended to use e-cigarettes
Recently, the official website of the UK government released the latest independent report on e-cigarettes, "Nicotine vaping in England: 2022 evidence update summary". The report, commissioned by Public Health England and led by academics from King's College London and a group of international collaborators, is the most comprehensive to date. Its primary focus is a systematic review of the evidence on the health risks of nicotine e-cigarettes.
The report mentioned that e-cigarettes are still the most commonly used and most successful smoking cessation aids for UK smokers, and their harm and addiction are far less than traditional cigarettes.
The UK government's official website publishes "Nicotine vaping in England: 2022 evidence update summary"
The report pointed out that in 2019, only 11% of the areas in the UK provided smokers with e-cigarette-related smoking cessation services, and this figure has increased to 40% in 2021, and 15% of the areas said they will provide smokers this service in the future.
At the same time, only 5.2% of all people who tried to quit smoking between April 2020 and March 2021 used e-cigarettes under government recommendations. However, the results show that the success rate of e-cigarettes to assist smoking cessation is as high as 64.9%, ranking first among all smoking cessation methods. That is to say, many smokers are actively choosing to use e-cigarettes to quit smoking.
In addition, the report also showed that the toxicant exposure biomarkers related to cancer, respiratory and cardiovascular diseases in e-cigarette users were significantly lower than those of cigarette users, further verifying the harm reduction potential of e-cigarettes.
The report was published by the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities (OHID), formerly Public Health England (PHE). Since 2015, the Department of Public Health England has published evidence review reports on e-cigarettes for eight consecutive years, providing an important reference for the formulation of tobacco control policies in the UK. As early as 2018, the department had highlighted in reports that e-cigarettes are at least 95% less harmful than cigarettes.
In addition, OHID also updated the smoking cessation guidelines for doctors in April this year, and emphasized in the chapter on smoking cessation assistance that "doctors should promote e-cigarettes to patients with smoking habits to help them better quit smoking".
UK Government Smoking Cessation Guidelines Updated on 5 April 2022
The report calls for accurate information on e-cigarettes to correct misconceptions about them. Because the public's misunderstanding of e-cigarettes will hinder them from using e-cigarettes to quit smoking. For example, when warning minors to stay away from e-cigarettes, these warnings cannot be used to mislead adult smokers.
It is reported that this report is the last in this series of independent reports on e-cigarettes, which means that the existing evidence is enough to help the UK government improve its tobacco control policy and promote e-cigarettes more efficiently to help it achieve the goal of a smoke-free society by 2030.
Post time: Oct-18-2022
