Health boss backs calls for smokers to be offered e-cigs
Birmingham health boss Dr Adrian Phillips today welcomed calls from the Royal College of Physicians for smokers to be offered and encouraged to use e-cigarettes to help them quit.
The city’s Director of Public Health has long been an advocate of the huge potential for e-cigarettes to become a ‘game-changer’ in the fight against smoking.
Now a new 200-page report from the Royal College of Physicians says there is resounding evidence that e-cigarettes are ‘much safer’ than smoking and aid quitting.
The report goes onto say that with the right checks and measures, vaping could improve the lives of millions of people.
Dr Phillips agrees and said: “I welcome this report from the Royal College of Physicians as a step in the right direction. Yes we need more research into the long-term effects, we need to ensure e-cigarettes are not marketed to children and young people and we must make sure they are safe.
“But I want people who smoke tobacco to stop their intake of tar and tobacco smoke because we know that this causes lung cancer and heart disease. Nicotine may cause some harm but it pales into insignificance when compared to the misery caused by tar and tobacco.”
Every year over 4,500 people die in Birmingham from a smoking related disease and smoking is directly attributable to:
- 1 in 4 of all cancers,
- 1 in 5 deaths from cardiovascular disease (heart disease and stroke),
- 1 in 3 of all deaths from respiratory disease
Dr Phillips added: “I’m sure we all want to see a dramatic reduction in these tragic figures and if a greater use of e-cigarettes means that people choose to transfer their nicotine addiction to e cigs or ‘vaping’ then this must be better than continuing to smoke tobacco.”
