E-Cigarettes Are Being Sold as Trendy Lifestyle Devices

 　　Professor Gillian Leng said people remain skeptical about the safety of e-cigarettes.

  　　Nearly 3 million people in the UK use e-cigarettes despite health concerns.   　　Professor Leng said the long-term health effects of these devices are still unclear.   　　She said e-cigarettes are 95% safer than traditional tobacco.   　　A senior health official warned yesterday that e-cigarettes are being sold as “fashionable lifestyle devices,” which could encourage people to use them long term.   　　Professor Green, deputy chief executive of the health watchdog NICE, said people still have doubts about the long-term health effects of e-cigarettes.   　　Although they can help smokers quit, the question is whether they will become a “lifestyle choice.”   　　Nearly 3 million people in the UK use e-cigarettes, and Professor Leng told the Science and Technology Committee that the long-term effects of using e-cigarettes remain unclear because they are relatively new.   　　When asked whether getting people to use these devices would keep them addicted to nicotine, she said: “That is the distinction when e-cigarettes are used as a stop-smoking aid, because in that case you can clearly reduce the amount of nicotine delivered through the product, and it can help you end nicotine addiction.”   　　The issue is whether it will become a long-term lifestyle choice, and the way e-cigarettes are marketed may create some problems. They are being promoted as exciting, cutting-edge products, which could encourage people to use them over the long term.   　　In March this year, NICE advised doctors to tell patients that e-cigarettes are better for them than smoking, but it did not recommend using e-cigarettes in smoking cessation services.   　　Professor Leng said yesterday: “We know they are much safer than cigarettes. The risk is that we do not know the long-term effects. They are 95% safer than cigarettes, but there is 5% we do not know.”   　　Professor Leng said e-cigarettes are 95% safer than traditional tobacco products, but there has not been enough research into their long-term effects.   　　E-cigarettes do not contain the dozens of carcinogenic toxins found in tobacco, but they do contain nicotine, which is highly addictive.   　　Professor John Newton of Public Health England said there are “reassuring patterns” in e-cigarette use. He said surveys show progress from smoking to e-cigarette use and then to quitting altogether.