E-cigarettes to help Black Country smokers kick habit?
Smokers in the Black Country could be recommended e-cigarettes to help them quit smoking following research commissioned by a council.
Sandwell Council believes the rise in e-cigarette use is an opportunity to help some of the 55,000 smokers in the borough kick the habit.
It wants to spend £110,000 of taxpayers money on improving its stop smoking services, part of which will be for research into the use of e-cigarettes and has not ruled out giving them to smokers for free.
Kits cost on average around £20 and replacement fluid about £10-a-week for smokers trying to stop but experts who compiled a report for Public Health England have recommended prescribing them.
Their report said e-cigarettes are 95 per cent less harmful than tobacco.
However the British Medical Association said there should be more debate on the issue.
Councillor Yvonne Davies, who oversees adult services, said it was worth investigating if e-cigarettes could help, but questioned whether prescribing them for free would ever happen.
She said: "Currently they could not be prescribed as they are not licensed in any case so any idea of 'prescribing' is a non-starter.
"What we are really looking at is whether the existence and use of e-cigs become part of the tools to assist giving up.
"We may want to see a raft of alternatives being discussed with smokers including e-cigs, giving the advice that whilst 'unknown quantity' Public Health England has estimated they are 95 per cent less harmful."
Asked if e-cigarettes would be prescribed for free Councillor Davies said: "I don't think we are in a position to say and my instinct would be that people would be saving 75 per cent of their spend, so why provide them?
"However until we have looked at all the available evidence from around the country, I would not want to tie our hands.
"Sandwell Council services offer different levels of support for different people's needs and if e-cigarettes can help play a part in people kicking that habit then it would help both physically and mentally.
"It is important to say that at the moment we do not know much about e-cigarettes so would look into the use of them as a short-term provision."
Instead of cigarette smoke, the user inhales vapour.
A standard size e-cigarette cartridge could provide enough smoking time to equal that offered by a 15 to 20 cigarettes.
