Brittan Cabinet Behavioral Insights Team Notes Electronic Cigarettes as an Effective Measure to Curb Smoking Health Risks

Portions of the following are taken directly from the Behavior Health Insight Team's Annual Report. The full text can be viewed as a PDF here.

A key component of the 2010-2011 report discusses the damaging effects of smoking and the team looked to specifically take instrumental problems arising from those who smoke and create legislature to reduce those risks and provide easy-to-implement solutions to reduce harm.

Electronic Cigarette Kit

Smoking remains the biggest preventable cause of death in the UK, killing over 80,000 a year in England alone. Given the severity of the effects of smoking, the desire of the majority of smokers to quit, and the fact that most smokers start smoking regularly before they are 18 years old, this is an area in which DH has been right to pursue policies relatively far up the 'ladder of intervention.' Areas in which the DH is drawing on insights include:

Continuation of effective quit smoking marketing campaigns, ending the display of tobacco products in shops, exploring new products for people addicted to nicotine, and trialing new ways to encourage people to quit.

Recently, the UK has banned cigarette machines from any establishment that does not provide detailed surveillance of the machines to prevent underage from purchasing cigarettes. This regulation stemmed from the above targeted directives of the Behavior Insights Team quest to provide a healthier life to all of those in the United Kingdom. Additionally, a key notation of the team's directive was to explore new products for people addicted to nicotine that would reduce harm to themselves and those sharing the same environment. Studies conducted concluded electronic cigarettes as a viable harm-reducing product that should be made available to all adult smokers.

Products that deliver nicotine quickly in a fine vapor instead of as harmful smoke could prove an effective substitute for 'conventional smoking.' It will be important to get the regulatory framework for these products right, to encourage new products, which smokers can use as safer nicotine alternatives, to be made available in the UK (3). [...] If more alternative and safe nicotine products can be developed which are attractive enough to substitute people away from traditional cigarettes, they could have the potential to save tens of thousands of lives a year.

The Behavior Insights Team cited, "(3) Treating smoking-related diseases costs the NHS £2.7 billion each year in England. Only 21% of adults now smoke, compared with nearly half of all adults in the 1960s. A review by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency concludes that ‘nicotine, while addictive, is actually a very safe drug’. BIT is working with DH on how to encourage smokers to substitute to safer but nonetheless appealing sources of nicotine, noting that products that produce a fine vapour appear to reproduce the pleasant ‘hit’ without the harms associated with smoking." In their comprehensive report.

What person utilizing an electronic cigarette couldn't agree?