One leading expert said it would be “perfectly reasonable” for the devices, which will soon be licensed as medicines, to be prescribed on the NHS.
Despite concerns that the recent rise in popularity of ‘e-cigs’ may be “re-normalising” smoking, Professor Robert West of University College London said that they had proven to be highly efficient quit-smoking aids, which could “substantially improve public health”.
Around a quarter of the four million people in England that attempted to quit smoking in the past year used e-cigarettes to help them.