E-cigarettes an effective way to kick smoking, says Hiqa

E-cigarettes are a cost-effective way of helping people to quit smoking, the first official analysis of its kind in Europe has found.

Ireland is the only country in the EU to include e-cigarettes in a state assessment of how best to help citizens give up smoking.

The Health Information and Quality Authority (Hiqa) found more people using e-cigarettes would lead to more people successfully kicking the habit. It also said e-cigarettes are cost-effective and could save the public purse millions every year.

However, the health authority, which has yet to publish its final report after a public consultation, acknowledges long-term effects from the use of e-cigarettes have yet to be established. It also says a more effective way of getting people to quit smoking is the use of the nicotine addiction medication varenicline alongside nicotine gum, patches, inhalers or sprays. But this would be more costly than using e-cigarettes.

Mairin Ryan, Hiqa’s director of health technology assessment, stressed the “high level of uncertainty” that remains around both the clinical and cost-effectiveness of e-cigarettes.

Dr Ryan added: “Hiqa’s analysis shows that increased uptake of e-cigarettes as an aid to quitting would increase the number of people who successfully quit compared with the existing situation in Ireland and would be cost-effective, provided that the currently available evidence on their effectiveness is confirmed by further studies.”

Ireland spends more than €40m every year on helping people to give up the habit. A rise in the use of e-cigarettes would cut the bill by €2.6m every year, it found.