More than 50,000 lives a year could be saved if Britain’s smokers switched to e-cigarettes, according to experts who have attacked the World Health Organisation for “alarmist” and “puritanical” plans for a crackdown.
Accusing the WHO of misunderstanding the evidence, some of the world’s leading tobacco control experts say heavy-handed regulation would cost lives by “crippling the competitiveness” of e-cigarettes and forcing smokers to stick with tobacco.
They compare restricting e-cigarettes to forcing people to heat their homes with open fires for fear that a boiler might burn the house down.
Although they say that e-cigarettes are not harmless and large uncertainties remain, they insist that the benefits are “potentially enormous”.
Last week the WHO urged a ban on indoor use of e-cigarettes and tougher