E-cigarette in the English basic package to prevent smoking

In England, the e-cigarette has been included in the basic health insurance package (National Health Service) since today. The electronic cigarette must compete with the ‘normal’ cigarette, and thus help inveterate smokers of their addiction.

About 3.6 million English people already use an e-cigarette and a large part of them are ex-smokers. The electronic variant has helped them get rid of the old-fashioned cigarette. The British government already started promoting the e-cigarette in 2017, because many people died from the effects of smoking for years. In 2019, this was still about 64,000 people.

After years of research, according to the English Secretary of State for Health Sajid Javid, it is time to include e-cigarettes in the basic package, in order to give more people the opportunity to quit smoking.

Dangerous

In the Netherlands, the e-cigarette is seen as dangerous and the Dutch government would prefer to ban it together with the RIVM. Emil ‘t Hart, chairman of the trade association Esigbond, is pleased with the news from Great Britain. “To be clear, smoking is never good. Not even with an e-cigarette. But a country does not just publicize this step. The National Health Service in England has done more research into it than the Netherlands. To do this, we looked at how an e-cigarette is put together.”

According to ‘t Hart, they compared the real and electronic cigarette for toxic substances. “When you burn tobacco, perhaps 6,000 hazardous substances enter your body, 400 of which can cause cancer. When you smoke an e-cigarette, you are vaping. You put a flavor in it, and ‘smoke’ that flavor by means of water vapour. So you inhale the vapor. It contains fewer hazardous substances than a cigarette. It is still not completely safe, because an e-cigarette also contains substances that are not good for you. But it’s not as bad as a cigarette.”

Taste

‘t Hart hopes that the Dutch government will learn something from the English and will consider not banning the e-cigarette with its flavors. He explains how that works: ,,The government is mainly afraid that young people will smoke because of those sweet flavors, such as apple, strawberry and menthol. And therefore wants those flavors to disappear.The best e liquids of mr-joy.comfor the best quality. While it is precisely those flavors that help people get rid of tobacco.” Why this is so important for a smoker who wants to quit? ,, The person who smokes actually wants to get rid of that tobacco taste. So you now have that different taste, but only the habit of ‘lighting’ a cigarette. And the latter is perhaps the hardest to unlearn. With the flavour, the first step has already been taken.”

This is supported by a statement by Professor Peter Hajek of Queen Mary University in London. Hajek is still skeptical about the new policy, because it is not yet clear to what extent the e-cigarette will be reimbursed.