The big tobacco companies, the health regulators and governments have not agreed on much. They have, however, formed an unhealthy alliance to prevent the spread of e-cigarettes. Tobacco companies are worried that their revenues are going up in smoke. Health regulators worry that inhaling nicotine vapour might be a gateway to smoking tobacco. Governments rely on the taxes that tobacco provides. The evidence against this alliance is now overwhelming.
It has emerged that e-cigarettes may save as many lives each year as all the other anti-smoking methods combined. Research from University College London shows that in 2014 some 20,000 “vapers” gave up smoking who would not otherwise have done so. We know from previous studies that inhaling nicotine vapour is 95 per cent less harmful than smoking tobacco. The levels of nitrosamine and formaldehyde in vapour are a thousand times lower than they are in smoke.
A study from New Zealand showed that users of e-cigarettes were more likely to stop smoking altogether and much more likely to halve their consumption than those who used nicotine patches or a placebo. In addition, one of the most powerful arguments against smoking — the harmful impact of passive smoking — does not apply to vaping.
The use of electronic cigarettes has grown rapidly. The market is already worth more than £2 billion and vaping has increased six-fold in Britain since 2010 to the point where there are 2.2 million users. Instead of an uninhibited welcome from the authorities, this growth has been met with suspicion. A dozen countries, mostly in Latin America, have banned vaping altogether. The European Commission has sought in vain, though with the support of the British government, to have e-cigarettes classified as a medicine. The official advice to users here has been that they should apply for a medical licence.
When shops are springing up on the high street selling customised versions of the cartridges, it is clear that regulation has fallen behind the marketplace. In the 1970s the NHS had its version of spectacles, a brown-rimmed contraption that caused young boys and girls to be bullied at school. With almost touching optimism, the NHS now has its own take on vaping. There is an official government nicotine inhalator, a mouthpiece-and-cartridge assemblage that looks basic but quietly concedes the point that vaping works. Indeed, last year, Public Health England said that the NHS should now recommend vaping to smokers trying to quit.
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The case against e-cigarettes is wrong in the abstract. Nicotine is a legal drug and so is the ingestion of its vapour. The task of government is to provide good information and to help people to cease activities that are damaging to them. If people then want to use e-cigarettes, they should be allowed to.
The case is also intensely practical. The proportion of adult smokers in Britain has halved in 40 years. E-cigarettes can help to continue this process. They have has none of the smoke, ash or stale smell that makes smoking unpleasant, not to say dangerous, for passive observers. They are proving themselves to be a successful in helping people to stop smoking while respecting individual freedom. Public Health England is right. Vaping should be encouraged and the lobbyists seen off.