Benefits of Electronic Cigarettes

Weldricks support e-cigarettes as we believe customers should have the opportunity to buy them from a registered pharmacy premises or a pharmacy website where help and support is available to assist with smoking cessation. We work closely with our suppliers to ensure we only sell quality products.

At the moment e-cigarettes are not licensed as medicines or regulated in the same way as other Nicotine Replacement Therapy (NRT) products however, according to a 200 page report written by the Royal College of Physicians (RCP) Tobacco Advisory Group they have found that electronic cigarettes are ‘beneficial to public health’ and that using them to quit smoking should be ‘widely promoted’.

The report found that electronic cigarettes do encourage people to quit smoking altogether, and that they do not encourage smoking in either adults or in children who have never smoked before.

Having looked through and reviewed the evidence in a range of studies from across the globe, the RCP said that they would support healthcare professionals in ‘providing support and reassurance to e-cigarette users’.

Professor John Britton, who is the chair of the Royal College of Physicians Tobacco Advisory Group, said: ‘This report lays to rest almost all of the concerns over e-cigarettes and concludes that, with sensible regulation, electronic cigarettes have the potential to make a major contribution towards preventing the premature death, disease and social inequalities in health that smoking currently causes in the UK.’

Dr Alex Bobak, a General Practitioner with Special Interest in smoking cessation added: ‘The only caveat I would have is that up to 90% of e-cigarette users continue to smoke at least some cigarettes and we know that any smoking carries significant risk. I would therefore encourage anyone who uses e-cigarettes to stop smoking completely rather than just cut down.’

Ram Moorthy who is the British Medical Association board of science deputy chair said that the report would help inform the debate but said the Medical Association would still like to see electronic cigarettes become a licensed medicinal product as it would ‘best reflect their use for harm reduction and ensures their effectiveness, quality, and safety’. He was also quoted as saying ‘it is certainly interesting to see the RCP assessment of tobacco harm reduction, which recognises the potential for e-cigarettes to reduce harm associated with tobacco use’.