E-Cigarettes Should Be Banned

In May 2016, the NHS will begin prescribing electronic cigarettes to patients looking to quit smoking. And with this decision, they hope to save millions of lives. Approximately 100,000 deaths a year in the UK alone are caused by smoking. That figure doesn't even include deaths from second hand smoke. So much time and money, invested in research all over the world, has gone into trying to a find an answer to the smoking problem. The NHS believes they may have found this answer. But are e-cigarettes the solution or will they too eventually be swept aside by the formidable tobacco companies and the individual's overwhelming desire to smoke?

The popularity of "vaping", as it is sometimes called, in the UK has increased remarkably in recent years,
As nicotine only slightly influences cardiovascular risk and any other chemicals detected were at such low concentrations that they are unlikely to cause much harm, it was declared that they are 95% healthier than cigarettes. But if that is the case, then why is it only the UK and Austria who are planning on using them as medicinal products? Why are they still illegal in so many countries?

There are two main concerns surrounding e-cigarettes. Firstly, the fact that they were only invented 12 years ago means that there hasn't been enough research into their long term effects. Nevertheless, the alternative is the inhalation of cigarette smoke which contains over 4000 chemicals. This includes at least 43 cancer causing chemicals and 400 other toxins. When that is compared to the results presented by Public Health England revealing that the chemicals released when vaping are at such a small fraction to those when smoking, e-cigarettes must be considered the lesser of two
Although, in the UK, nearly all the vapers are current or ex-smokers, in the US, there has been an increase in the numbers of teenage vapers. This will lead to nicotine addiction and in some cases, cigarette smoking. This theory is supported by the rise seen in the sales of tobacco products in 2014; the first in the US for decades. The fear is that allowing e-cigarettes to be prescribed by doctors would make them more accessible. However, if they are prescribed to people looking to give up smoking, then the people using them will already be addicted to nicotine. There should be no more lives consumed by their