Health risks ignored by PHE

A leading medical expert accused public Health England of ignoring increasing evidence on the harmful effect of e-cigarettes. Prof Martin McKee of London School of Hygiene and tropical medicine, said the UK was out of step with other parts of the world when it come to messages about vaping.

He said PHE seems to doing everything it can do to promote e-cigarettes and choosing to ignore warnings over the risks. “Given the short term effects on lung function and cardiovascular effects there is enough evidence to say we should be very very careful.” he said. He added that San Francisco had adopted a sensible policy in moving to ban e-cigarettes until their health effects were fully evaluated by the US government. “It is not whether they are safer than cigarettes but it’s whether they are actually safe” he said.

PHE actively campaigned for smokers to switch to e-cigarettes saying that vaping is 95 per cent less harmful than tobacco smoking. Prof John Newton, director of health improvement at PHE said ” There is widespread academic and clinical consensus that, while not without risk,  vaping is far less harmful than smoking”.

The US has also launched a drive to warn teenagers of the dangers of nicotine addiction from vaping. When e-cigarettes first appeared on stores a couple of years back they were marketed as a sleek, fashionable discreet technology that help adult to quit smoking.