How e-cigarettes can reduce the harm caused by smoking

This month is Stoptober, a £6m Department of Health campaign to help people to quit smoking within 28 days. Health experts believe that if they can achieve that they are five times more likely to quit the habit for good. Persuading people to stop smoking is what anti-tobacco groups describe as the holy grail.

Yet next week, there will be what amounts to an official acknowledgment that sometimes it is simply impossible to persuade some smokers to quit so, instead, there needs to be harm reduction. The ‘nudge’ approach, which the government promotes as an effective method of changing people’s behaviour.

The National Institute of Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) will publish draft guidance on harm reduction and will evaluate the use of pharmaceutical products, like zyban, that are licensed to help people cut down, behavioural support and counselling, self-help techniques and nicotine-replacement products, including nicotine patches and electronic cigarettes.