Counterintuitive health: E-cigarette use

It may seem counterintuitive for an eminent health body to be seen to advocate the use of e-cigarettes.

Yet that is exactly what Britain’s Royal College of Physicians is doing, arguing that they are likely to bring benefits for public health and should be widely promoted to smokers to help them quit tobacco.

The Irish Cancer Society has a different view, refusing to recommend them without guarantees of their long-term safety. That is an understandable but unrealistic position.