Electronic Cigarettes: The Latest Debate in Smoking Cessation

Here at the smokers' clinic more and more patients are coming in and telling us they have been using electronic cigarettes. A lot of people have found them to be a useful aid for quitting, whereas others considered them a poor substitute for cigarettes. Experts in the field of smoking cessation are also split over the future of e-cigarettes. There is hope that with improvements to the nicotine delivery from e-cigarettes, they could be a real alternative to cigarettes for many smokers, as they have the advantage of looking and feeling a lot more like real cigarettes than other nicotine replacement products. Polosa at el. (2011) gave e-cigarettes to smokers with no intention to quit and found that at 6 months 22% had been abstinent for at least 30 days (verified by carbon monoxide levels) and 55% had more than halved their cigarette consumption. Despite this promising evidence, some believe that increasing use of e-cigarettes could undo the work done over the years to "denormalise" smoking, or that they could be a gateway into smoking for those who would not otherwise have started. There is however little evidence to support this view.

The next question about e-cigarettes is whether or not they should be considered a medicine in the same way that other nicotine replacement products are. The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) has proposed regulating e-cigarettes as medicines in order to guarantee their safety. This is a move welcomed by many, but others argue that the process of licensing a product as a medicine is too expensive for many companies and therefore regulation could remove many of these products from the market. Currently the only company putting forward an e-cigarette to MHRA for approval as a medicine that aids quitting is CN Creative, which is owned by British American Tobacco. The idea of a tobacco company making money from people quitting does not sit well with many people. Campaign group ASH argue in favour if "light-touch" regulation where there could be compromises such as allowing continued retail sale of existing e-cigarettes, so that smokers who have switched to them do not return to smoking.


What do you think? Should e-cigarettes continue to be sold as consumer products, regulated as medicines or banned altogether? Leave your comments below.

Click here for an article in New Scientist about e-cigarettes potentially being sold as medicine. The smokers' clinic is currently carrying out a number of studies, including some about e-cigarettes. If you are interested in taking part please call 0207 882 8230.