UK government updates smoking cessation guidelines: Emphasizing the harm reduction and smoking cessation effects of e-cigarettes

On April 11, the official website of the British government showed that the Office of Health Improvement and Difference (OHID) in the United Kingdom updated the smoking cessation guidelines for doctors. At the same time, the guide also pointed out that nicotine is only an addictive substance and does not cause cancer.

OHID is affiliated to the Department of Health and Social Care of the United Kingdom, formerly known as the Department of Public Health England (PHE).

In England alone, 74,600 people died from smoking in 2019, according to the guidelines. Between 2019 and 2020, 506,100 people were hospitalized for smoking-related illnesses. At present, 52.7% of smokers in the UK want to quit smoking, but if they only rely on the willpower of smokers themselves, the smoking cessation rate is extremely low. To this end, the professional guidance of doctors is more important, and helping smokers to use smoking cessation aids scientifically can significantly improve the smoking cessation rate.

E-cigarettes are the most commonly used smoking cessation aids for British smokers. This guide also emphasizes the harm reduction and smoking cessation potential of e-cigarettes to doctors in the chapter on smoking cessation aids. It is hoped that doctors can better promote e-cigarettes to smokers.

At present, more and more evidences show that e-cigarettes have a significant effect on smoking cessation. For example, the Cochrane Collaboration, an international authoritative academic organization for evidence-based medicine, pointed out in its review research report published in 2021 that e-cigarettes have the effect of smoking cessation, and the success rate of smoking cessation is the result of nicotine replacement therapy, nicotine-free e-cigarettes and other means double.

Many public health organizations, including the Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP), the British Medical Association (BMA), Cancer Research UK, and the National Academy of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, also agree that e-cigarettes can significantly reduce harm compared to cigarettes.

This smoking cessation guide also mentions that nicotine is only an addictive substance in cigarettes and does not cause cancer. But many people have misunderstandings about nicotine. 40% of British smokers believe that nicotine can cause cancer. Therefore, the professional science popularization of doctors is particularly important, and letting smokers understand the harm reduction of nicotine e-cigarettes will be more conducive to helping smokers quit smoking.
As the country with the best tobacco control effect, the UK has always insisted on promoting e-cigarettes as a smoking cessation tool, calling it “an innovative public health measure”. This move is an important part of the UK’s goal of becoming a smoke-free country by 2030.