France comes down on side of e-cigs

France has become the latest country to issue official guidance in favour of electronic cigarettes, suggesting they comprise an effective tool for smokers who are looking to reduce or replace tobacco consumption, according to a story by Francesca Washtell for Cityam.com.

Tabac Info Service, run by the government body Public Health France, said this week that ‘according to the latest work of the High Council on Public Health (Haut Conseil de la Santé Publique), electronic cigarettes can constitute a tool to help stop or reduce consumption of tobacco’ and also ‘reduce the risk of developing serious illnesses such as cancer’.

The stop-smoking campaign has said electronic cigarettes are ‘much less harmful than traditional cigarettes’.

It found also that vapers who continued to smoke while using electronic cigarettes reduced their tobacco consumption by an average of nine cigarettes per day, meaning vaping could be used as a ‘progressive tool’ for quitting smoking.

Although the long-term effects of using electronic cigarettes have yet to be established, British and Belgian public health authorities have started promoting them as a way to lessen the overall public health burden caused by smoking.

Washtell’s piece is at: http://www.cityam.com/245361/vapers-rejoice-tide-turning-towards-e-cigarettes-france.