to think this is good news for Vapers...

[PiffIeandWiffle]

Here's a BBC Linky but the upshot is that, according to Public Health England, vaping isn't the big Satan that some make it out to be, E-Cigs should be available on prescription & that hospitals & employers should have designated vaping areas (even rooms for long stay patients).

It's about time some proper research was done & some recognition of the fact that it's just water & flavouring - "there was "overwhelming evidence" they were far safer than smoking and "of negligible risk to bystanders"....

Good news for those trying to give up fags, but it does mean that the frothers will have to find something else to froth about now......

I agree that on prescription is ridiculous. No problem with the NHS funding some of the additional support to help with the transition to vaping, but I would be unhappy with the NHS funding someone’s lifelong addiction when they can buy it themselves.

We have a stop smoking programme in my area and they have funding to provide a starter pack to vape on people with low incomes. However it is a limited programme and the support only continues for 6 weeks (for the non-smoking provisions - longer for the personal support). I think that’s fair and reasonable.

If someone likes it enough, I hope they will go on to buy more vapours for themselves and not go back to cigarettes. We as taxpayers shouldn’t continue to fund their habit for life.

For me the problem is that my lungs are very sensitive to some stimulants. Cigarette smoke, strangely enough is not one of them, but the vape vapours is.

So people switch to vapes and now I'm the one coughing and spluttering

We need to go through a few generations of users to see the true results of this

True in one way- you can't know the long-term effects til, well, the long-term.

But if you proceed cautiously, then millions, yes, millions of smokers will die in the meantime (as tobacco companies are promoting smoking non stop around the world in China/India as well as in the UK/US).

That's a high price to pay.

The economic sense of offering e-cigs is that users prefer them to patches/NRT/gum and the limited evidence we have shows they stop more successfully with them. So, basically they work better. Why would you keep offering someone the less successful version of a medicine?

The other issue is that many people are not aware that smoking is not evenly distributed in the population- smoking rates amongst people who are homeless are 80/90% or more, and very high with people with severe psychiatric diagnoses who die on average 20/30 years earlier than people who don't have that diagnoses. One reason for this is smoking. Leaving them to get on with it- saying 'buy your own' seems to me very wrong.

There are one or two places that have starting offering starter kits for four weeks to disadvantaged/people with mental health problems (inpatients). They pay for their own after that. No-one is suggesting paying long-term for vaping, not least as there's no prescribable product anyway! It's all a future fantasty.

I do encourage people to move to vaping instead of smoking, as per the Public Health guidelines. I’m not comfortable about people vaping around my baby though as I don’t know what kind of damage it can do in the long run.

I do hate those sickly sweet smelling clouds that pop up around the city though. Why would anyone want to stink of bubblegum?

Why would anyone object to the most effective aid to stopping smoking being available on the NHS? If you object to this, presumably you also think that no nicotine replacements should be prescribed at all. In which case logically disband stop smoking teams and take all stop smoking initiatives out of the NHS.

I don’t care what you do. But it does piss me off when I’m walking along minding my own business and a huge cloud of what smells like lush bath bombs descends on me from the person in front. It makes me feel nauseous.

And the idea of it being on prescription makes me laugh. Yes. That’s exactly what the NHS should be piling their riches into.

My DH successfully gave up smoking by vaping, but as a bystander, I found smoking easier to live with. He's a real enthusiast so spends buckets of cash on machines, liquids, batteries, wicks, atomisers etc. Plumes and plumes of smoke come out of it and it doesn't clear quickly like steam. It really stinks all the time and this weird greasy film gets on his lips /beard. It makes my stomach churn and I encourage him to give it up quite a lot but he considers it a hobby more and likens it to me giving up singing in my choir for him!

I can't help but think that greasy, sticky film is otherwise collecting in his lungs and is doing similar, just different damage to what smoking did.

I don't think people should be encouraged to start.

Why should vaping be on prescription? If people choose to smoke in the first place then it's up to them to pay for the cost to quit also. If they can afford cigarettes then they can afford vape.

I don't think anyone knows the long term affects of vaping yet, but I am doubtful that it is good for you. Yeah may be better than smoking but I'm waiting for research studies that come out in years to come that say how bad vaping actually is.

I can't help but think that greasy, sticky film is otherwise collecting in his lungs and is doing similar, just different damage to what smoking did.

This made me feel sick and I imagine it is true as well.

Difference between Nicolette patches being on nhs and vaping is that with patches and the like, they are to help you quit and therefore the expense stops. With vaping, many people move onto it and never stop so the expense in many cases would be ongoing.

In which case logically disband stop smoking teams and take all stop smoking initiatives out of the NHS they are not in the NHS now, they are in public health in local councils who are struggling to fund addiction services, social care for the elderly and keep the roads going as well.

It's not on prescription, anyway. That's the bottom line!

No problem with the NHS funding some of the additional support to help with the transition to vaping, but I would be unhappy with the NHS funding someone’s lifelong addiction when they can buy it themselves.

I don't think it's ever been suggested it'd be for life! Encourage them onto vaping & off of fags, then leave them to it makes sense to me!

Piffle How long do you think it should be available on prescription for then?

I don't understand people my age (45) and younger who started smoking in the first place. By that point we KNEW how bad it was.

As for vaping we don't know NEARLY enough about it to know the long term effects or the effects of passive vaping. Look how long it took to get the proof on passive and tertiary smoking! And even now there are idiots that don't believe the science.

I'm a non smoker, I've never smoked, both parents heavy smokers despite both getting serious Life threatening illnesses directly related to smoking. Dad has only stopped because he is now on oxygen as a result and would literally blow himself up. Mum has had cancer TWICE - a type DIRECTLY related to smoking and she STILL smokes it infuriates me.

As an asthmatic (probably as a result of a smoke filled home growing up) vaping steam or whatever it's called triggers my asthma (not always but often enough). That suggests to me it is NOT as safe as capers and the dodgy research carried out by the manufacturers claim.

They may not be ingesting all the other crap in cigarettes but nicotine is still a harmful substance and we don't know the effects of inhaling the other chemicals in vapers.

I also completely disagree with it being available on prescription. The nhs is seriously underfunded and when people with life threatening no-fault conditions are having to pay for meds/equipment it's out of order.

As several pps have said, if they can afford cigarettes they can afford vapers and accessories.

Particularly for those smokers stupid enough to take up smoking when the harm was well known I have little to no sympathy. It was a choice.

There is one device licensed by the MHRA ironically enough invented by BAT however it took millions to develop and by the time it got the ok it was out of date so they've now dropped it citing production difficulties.
If the EU hadn't forbidden ecig companies from having promotions and giveaways then this prescription business wouldn't even be an issue, starter kits could be literally given away at no cost to the taxpayer.
Main thing to take from this report is further confirmation that ecigs are far safer than smoking and although it's clear from this thread that some still believe the scare stories in the media.

If the EU hadn't forbidden ecig companies from having promotions and giveaways then this prescription business wouldn't even be an issue, starter kits could be literally given away at no cost to the taxpayer.

To whom - just smokers or non-smokers too? Can you honestly not see why giving away ecigs is a horrible idea?

No.

It’s absolutely ridiculous to suggest that e cigs are made available on prescription. Utter nonsense.

but nicotine is still a harmful substance - "People smoke for the nicotine, but contrary to what the vast majority believe, nicotine causes little if any of the harm." www.gov.uk/government/news/phe-publishes-independent-expert-e-cigarettes-evidence-review

Offering a vaporiser and a months supply of e liquid on the NHS would probably be cheaper than a course of Champix I'd have thought. No reason it would have to be funded any longer term than that, and being available "on prescription" doesn't mean it would be free, just that they would only have to pay the prescription charge, or not if they get free prescriptions. I have to pay for my many and varied prescriptions, Doesn't mean that I think other things shouldn't be available on prescription, especially something that can save the NHS a fortune in the longer term, and the fact that they could ensure people were being given devices and liquids that meet safety standards.

Okay, try it anouther way. Do you know one of the key ways smoking was encouraged in the past? By giving out free samples of the product. Ecig companies ultimately want to sell their products, and to sell they need more users.

And it should happen, the smoking population is actually quite low these days - so the key population to target would be the non-smokers. You can’t outright say smoking e-cigs is healthy because it’s not, but companies can entice with free sample kits, lovely flavours, market it in a trendy, recreational hobby.

But there’s still nicotine in the products which is addictive. Not to mention the act of smoking is habitual.

The outcome being that some non-smokers would start up vaping. Whilst Public Health say that it’s significantly less dangerous than cigarettes, the guidance is still very clearly not to smoke anything.

But I think you are being obtuse.

I stopped smoking by vaping three years ago. I had been sporadically vaping since 2007. If you can afford to smoke, you can afford to vape.

Should the NHS be responsible for every single lifestyle choice? Should the NHS pay for a healthy food shop for those who buy crap? Provide free plasters and Savlon for everyone who gets a kitten? Like hell they should. Ridiculous.

Someone up thread made a very valid point about the qualitiy of the vaping liquid. This is crucial. I only use fluids made in the UK, there are producers in Lancashire and Wales afaik, could be more. There's a reason that good fluids cost a fiver. I find one 10ml bottle lasts a week, so that's £5 v £60.

It's also better for the economy to buy 'locally' made products.

Decent vape starter kits are available for around £20 from Totally Wicked shops or on their website. These include the e cig and fluid.

If you can afford to buy fags, you can afford an initial outlay of £20-30.

Good vaping etiquette says don't vape anywhere with a Smoking Ban, and don't vape around peoples' cars, homes, kids etc without permission.

The argument that if you can afford cigarettes you can afford vapes should also apply to other things that are given on prescription to help people to quit such as patches and gum.

I'd rather the money went to researching the effects of vaping from an independent source.

Then a study to see if someone helped by the NHS is going to succeed compared to someone choosing to make the change from cigarettes to vapes themselves.

YABU, yes you are.

Prescription is laughable at best. You expect the government to essentially pay you to quit a habit you started knowing the health implications? 😐 Must be nice living in a country that facilitates your addiction.

If you can afford to buy cigarettes for £10 a day, you can afford your vaping habits.

And while this study shows vaping has less health implications... it hasn't been around that long... so only the future studies will prove this right or wrong... I wouldn't be jumping at it, it's still an addictive substance your inhaling.

Smokers are like dog owners entitled and selfish. Free to puff their clouds of death onto the public whether it's sweet smelling or vile... it's no different to the drug users who shoot up in public spaces and leave their hazardous needles behind! Disgusting!

My mother is a smoker... I have asthma. It's a disgusting habit and like any other drug user a selfish one.... as it's always about your needs. And you can compare the car fumes etc. At least cars serve a purpose... what do cigarettes do? I don't think anyone gets in a car for no reason 😐.

... and nobody should be given a break for smoking... would you give breaks for someone to go shoot up or take some cocaine? I had the displeasure of working with a smoker who needed 15 minute smoke breaks and came back stinking out the office... it impacted everyone in our office and their fowl cigarette breath didn't help. For every smoking break you need/take you should be docked that time in wages it's unfair to other employees.

Okay, try it anouther way. Do you know one of the key ways smoking was encouraged in the past? By giving out free samples of the product. Ecig companies ultimately want to sell their products, and to sell they need more users.

They already have millions of smokers to attract, Smoking Cessation Centres could give them away, vape companies have tried to donate gear but it's not allowed.

And it should happen, the smoking population is actually quite low these days - so the key population to target would be the non-smokers. You can’t outright say smoking e-cigs is healthy because it’s not, but companies can entice with free sample kits, lovely flavours, market it in a trendy, recreational hobby.

Marketing illegal in EU and no one says ecigs are healthy

But there’s still nicotine in the products which is addictive. Not to mention the act of smoking is habitual.

Only addictive in combustible tobacco

The outcome being that some non-smokers would start up vaping.

In your opinion

But I think you are being obtuse.

Ok

That came out not the way I put it in, hope you get the gist