For those of us who are already vapers, it comes as no surprise that vaping is now being recommended by the NHS as one of the best ways to give up smoking. With an estimated 1.5 million people in the UK completely giving up smoking with the aid of e-cigarettes.
With the UK having some of the strictest laws regarding e cigarettes and eliquid, as outlined by the introduction of TPD in April 2016, vaping has become easily regulated and made as safe as possible. Now health officials are even urging hospitals to allow patients to vape in their beds in aid of reducing smoking relating illnesses.
Studies Into E Cigarette
With many of the studies into e-cigarettes recently publishing their findings, there has been a lot more public discussion surrounding vaping. Results published by Public Health England (PHE) states that vaping is 95% safer than smoking, these findings are backed by other organisations such as the Royal College of Physicians, and the risk of cancer is calculated to be less than 1%.
These results have encouraged many people who previously, due to lack of clear information, mistakingly believed vaping to carry the same risks as smoking. These results came with the recommendation that, in the interest of cracking down on smoking, the NHS embrace vape culture as not just a craze, but a viable tool to assist in Stop Smoking Clinics nationwide.
The governmental blog Public Health Matters outlines a plan to make hospitals completely smoke-free zones across their entire grounds.
They are quoted as saying:
Hospitals are health promoting environments for all and cannot be a place for behaviour that leads to the illness and death of so many. While smoking would not be permitted at all on site, the use of e-cigarettes would be allowed across all or most of the premises.
Stop Smoking Support
The Stop Smoking support would not only be available to patients, but also to hospital staff, in order to ensure full compliance. Subsequently helping patients and staff to easily make the change and ensure easy access to aids such as e-cigs.
It is all well to ban smoking on hospital premises, but if patients do not have access to the stop smoking aids that they are being recommended, with e cigarettes not yet available on prescription; these initiatives become far less likely to succeed. With cigarettes being the main cause of premature death, a big change like this is overdue. Where better to initiate that change than in the hospitals that are currently tasked with treating the negative consequences of smoking.
Although there will no doubt be some backlash from non-smokers/vapers, the PHE have been able to identify no health risks associated with the inhalation of second hand vapour, meaning this decision could have a positive impact on the public as a whole!
If put into action, these proposed plans for implementing ecigarettes in hospitals could mean welcoming millions more people into our vape community, and really help get the word out about the positive effects of making the change to vaping!
For most of us vapers, it is a joy to know that vaping is being recognised as the potentially lifesaving lifestyle change that we know it to be!
You can find all sources here: NHS SmokeFree, Public Health Matters, Royal College of Physicians & GOV research.
Leave us a comment to let us know your opinion on the proposed changes! Don’t forget to pop into your local Evapo store to get information on how you could make the change, or head over to our website at Evapo.co.uk!
