Our policy on e-cigarettes
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Get in touch with our policy team to find out more information about our work and our policies.
We support a balanced approach towards e-cigarettes, which maximises their potential to help people quit smoking, whilst minimising the risks of unintended consequences that could promote smoking.
We support ‘light touch’ regulation of e-cigarettes, to ensure product safety and consistent dose, restrict marketing that risks re-normalising smoking, and stop them being sold to children. At present, we do not believe there is enough evidence to justify an indoor ban on e-cigarettes.
It is important that adequate protections exist to stop the promotion of e-cigarettes to young people and non-smokers. We must also ensure that the tobacco industry’s investment in e-cigarettes does not provide them with an opportunity to influence health policy.
There are a range of unanswered questions about the likely impact of these products on individuals and effective tobacco control policies, which is why we have established the UK E-cigarette Research Forum with Public Health England (PHE) and the UK Centre for Tobacco and Alcohol Studies (UKCTAS), and why we are increasing our investment in e-cigarette research.
Related documents
The role of electronic cigarettes in Stop Smoking Services (April 2019)
Q&A: Electronic Cigarettes (January 2019)
Electronic cigarettes policy briefing (July 2018)
Electronic cigarette marketing: Current research and policy (October 2016)
CAP consultation on the new rules on advertising e-cigarettes (October 2016)
Our response to the Welsh Government's Public Health White Paper consultation (September 2014)
Our response to the CAP and BCAP consultation on new advertising rules for e-cigarettes (April 2014)
The marketing of electronic cigarettes in the UK (November 2013)
See also
The UK E-Cigarette Research Forum (UKERCF)
New study comes the closest yet to proving that e-cigarettes aren’t as dangerous as smoking
Stoptober 2016: Could E-cigarettes help Stop Smoking Services beat addiction?
10 common questions about e-cigarettes answered
Reducing the harm of tobacco, could e-cigarettes be part of the solution?
Headlines about e-cigarettes don’t mean they’re ‘not safer than tobacco’
Young people and e-cigarettes – what do the latest data tell us?
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