IBVTA welcomes new NICE guidance on e-cigarettes

The IBVTA welcomes the new NICE Guidance published today, which includes specific advice to healthcare professionals on e-cigarettes.

The guidance is an update to eight previous guidances and was co-developed by NICE and Public Health England (now the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities OHID).

The new advice is that those who smoke need to be informed that vaping is safer then smoking and can help them quit, that people get accurate advice about e‑cigarettes and their possible use to help them stop smoking, and advice on how to use them.

When exercising their judgement, professionals and practitioners are expected to take this guideline fully into account. In addition, local commissioners and providers of healthcare have a responsibility to enable the guideline to be applied when individual professionals and people using services wish to use it.

We know that evidence-based approaches to supporting the use of vaping as a means to quit varies greatly across the country, so the IBVTA sees this as a call-to-action that more commissioners and practitioners support vaping within their services.

IBVTA CEO, Gillian Golden said, “IBVTA members are already providing a choice of vaping products to a number of stop smoking services, NHS trusts and smoking cessation projects which call for quality, affordable products, supplied by businesses that are not affiliated with the tobacco industry.

We welcome that NICE once again reinforces the importance of vaping as a recognised means to quit and places an onus on healthcare and smoking cessation professionals to ensure that nicotine containing e-cigarettes are available to adults who smoke.”