6 February 2018
The Times newspaper, UK: Vaping in hospital wins support of health chiefs. Hospitals should allow vaping in private rooms as part of an anti-smoking drive, health chiefs have said. While the vapour given off by e-cigarettes may be annoying for others, there is no evidence that it is harmful, according to Public Health England, which has reviewed its guidance. All smokers, including pregnant women, should be encouraged to use e-cigarettes to quit tobacco, it said. Hospitals should also be allowed to sell e-cigarettes in their shops and regulators should push manufacturers to license them as medical quitting aids, allowing doctors to prescribe them. The review, conducted by experts from King’s College London, the UK Centre for Tobacco and Alcohol Studies and the University of Stirling, found that vaping posed only a small fraction of the risks of smoking, with 0.5 per cent of the risk of cancer. It found that e-cigarette use helped at least 20,000 people to quit tobacco every year. The experts said they were frustrated by the publication of studies linking e-cigarettes to health problems.