Regulations over the use of electronic (e) cigarettes should be relaxed to encourage more use of these devices as a stop smoking tool and to help prevent cancer, according to MPs on an influential committee.

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MPs on the House of Commons Science and Technology Committee published a report1 on e-cigarettes on 17 August 2018 which reviews the current evidence base on the harmfulness of e-cigarettes compared to conventional cigarettes and current policies.

The report says that e-cigarettes are estimated to be 95% less harmful than conventional cigarettes and are too often overlooked as a stop smoking tool by the NHS.

Therefore, regulations should be relaxed relating to e-cigarettes' licensing, prescribing and advertising of their health benefits, while levels of taxation and their use in public places be reconsidered.

MPs concluded that e-cigarettes should not be treated in the same way as conventional cigarettes. The two leading causes of mouth cancer in the UK are tobacco and alcohol.

During the Committee's inquiry into the subject, MPs had heard from witnesses giving evidence that e-cigarettes were not a significant gateway, including for young non-smokers, to conventional smoking and did not pose a significant risk through second-hand inhalation.

Around 2.9 million people in the UK currently use e-cigarettes, and it has been estimated that about 470,000 people are using them as an aid to stop smoking.

The Committee called on the Government to consider risk-based regulation to allow more freedom to advertise e-cigarettes as the relatively less harmful option, and provide financial incentives, in the form of lower levels of taxation, for smokers to swap from cigarettes to less harmful alternatives.

Overall, the MPs said they believed that the risk for smokers of continuing to use conventional cigarettes was greater than the uncertainty over the long-term use of e-cigarettes.

They recommended that, in order to gather independent health-related evidence on e-cigarettes and heat-not-burn products, the Government should support a long-term research programme overseen by Public Health England and the Committee on Toxicity of Chemicals in Food, Consumer Products and the Environment, with an online hub making evidence available to health professionals and the public.

Norman Lamb MP, Chair of the Science and Technology Committee, said: 'Smoking remains a national health crisis.

'E-cigarettes are less harmful than conventional cigarettes, but current policy and regulations do not sufficiently reflect this and businesses, transport providers and public places should stop viewing conventional and e-cigarettes as one and the same.

'E-cigarettes are a proven stop smoking tool and, while uncertainties undoubtedly remain about their long-term health impact, failing to explore the use of e-cigarettes could lead to the continued use of conventional cigarettes – which currently kill around 79,000 people in England every year.'