Doctors should state clearly that vaping is much lower risk than smoking, says report

E-cigarettes pose only a small fraction of the risk of smoking, and encouraging smokers to switch completely to vaping would produce substantial health benefits, says a review of the evidence commissioned for Public Health England.1

The review, written by an independent panel of experts, says that under half of adults in Britain think that e-cigarettes are less harmful than smoking. This falls to a third among smokers who have never tried e-cigarettes.

Health professionals should tell smokers clearly that “vaping is at least 95% less harmful than smoking” to communicate the large difference in relative risk unambiguously and to encourage more smokers to make the switch, the report says.

Public Health England says that compelling evidence shows …