The National Health Service of Scotland Now Promoting E-Cigarettes
Scotland’s National Health Service (NHS) have begun promoting electronic cigarettes as a better alternative to smoking tobacco. This is a great victory for Scottish citizens and global e-cigarette users together. Marking an important point in time, smokers looking for an alternative nicotine replacement product will no longer be completely deterred from using e-cigarettes and vaporizers. Public services for smokers looking for quitting aid assistance would usually not offer the option of e-cigarettes, favoring patches and nicotine gum. The smokers would usually return to smoking as the majority who try those types of cessation devices.
An important fact to note, is that the NHS is now focused on reducing smoking rates and while they still recommend patches, gums and inhalers, if electronic cigarettes produce better results, they will actively promote them as the best alternative to smoking. The decision to change their approach and start utilizing e-cigs as part of their public health services came after a surge of requests and questions submitted by citizens.
Recent studies show how ineffective licensed nicotine alternative products really are, but at this time, all health organizations remain cautious about promoting e-cigarettes due to their recent appearance on the market. As more studies are conducted, and large organizations such as the FDA present more data, progress will seem to be stagnating, but every little step counts.
Over 100,000 smokers had registered for public health service aid to quit smoking nation-wide, this figure was 13% larger the previous year, and the NHS explained the decrease in requests for help to be directly attributed to the fact that they did not actively offer e-cigarettes, they decided it was time to give the public what was really working for them. The NHS recognizes that it has more to offer to smokers in terms of facilitating the challenge of quitting and effectively became more accessible with the recent adoption of smokeless cigarettes.
The NHS, just like all other health organizations, warns that there is too little data to conclude any safety and health hazard issues related to long term use of electronic cigarettes, concluding that current professional opinion suggests that e-cigs are most likely much less of a health hazard than smoking. Scotland can now be on the lookout for any sharp reduction in national smoking rates, and we hope to see just that.
One of the main problems looming over e-cigarette markets right now, are possible hefty, unfair and unnecessary taxes. The right direction is governmental help and solicitation of e-cigarettes as alternative nicotine delivery devices, effectively replacing smoking. This shift would promote product development and aim at improving the systems and devices in order to better attain the main goal, to quit smoking! We are happy to see out friends in Scotland do just that and hope to see this direction remain for years to come.