New NICE guidelines on Tobacco Harm Reduction

[Matt Gluggles]

NICE, the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence, has just launched a new consultation on draft guidelines for people who can't quit smoking. (and presumably people who don't want to quit smoking)

The main body of the draft is based around NRT (gum, patches, lozenges etc) and it is now recommending that people who cannot quit should use these products to "cut down".

In terms of electronic cigarettes, NICE say this:

"Advisers should inform people who smoke that some nicotine-containing products (for example, electronic cigarettes) are not currently regulated by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency and so their safety and quality can't be assured. However, tell them that these products are likely to be less harmful than cigarettes."

NICE will not recommend e-cigs, because they are not a medicinal product, but the change in policy is significant - Advisers should tell them that these products are likely to be less harmful than cigarettes - this is a step forward from "we cannot recommend them", the previous policy.

This is guidance forms part of a consultation that will run between 24th October and 19th December 2012.

The final outcome is due to be published in May 2013, co-incidently, the same time the the MHRA is due to anounce a 'light touch' regulation of e-cigs.

The NICE press release is here
www.nice.org.uk/newsroom/pressreleases/NICEConsultsOnDraftGuidanceToHelpPeopleWhoCantQuitSmokingInOneStep.jsp


The NICE tobacco harm reduction schedule and key documents here
www.nice.org.uk/guidance/index.jsp?action=byID&o=13018

[maccafan]

A step forward in the right direction, indeed.

[Ellen]

I'm going to the doctors this afternoon for the first time since I started vaping, I'm going to ask him what he thinks of E-cigs

[OneDay]

When I did that my doc claimed not to know what e-cigs were so I whipped my Twist out in his surgery and gave him a demo lol

[giles]

Great news
I've also been trying to tell my doc, and the nurses doing the health checks for wrinklies, that they should be recommending ecigs to smokers.
They listen very politely

[ciar]

Not been to the docs since before i quit, but I am tempted to pop in just to show my ecig ;-)

[han78]

Oct 24, 2012 10:34:07 GMT Ellen said:

I'm going to the doctors this afternoon for the first time since I started vaping, I'm going to ask him what he thinks of E-cigs

Ellen please tell me how you get on, I would be really interested to find out what her/his take is on vaping

[ChillerVapes]

Only last week I went into my local pharmacy and got talking about ecigs and how I had no luck using every type of nrt and champix. The manager of the place was really stuck onto the "you need will power if your going to use nrt" and seemed quite against ecigs even though I (and millions of other users have successfully got rid of using cancer sticks with them)

[hifistud]

When you read deeper into all the supporting documentation, this is not the news we'd been hoping for. NICE is simply tipping the hat in our direction - this is the beginning of a consultation process, but, unless you're a stakeholder, they'll ignore any reply you may make.

Oh - and the list of stakeholders makes interesting reading. Certain parties are noticeable by their absence at present (they wouldn't grant VTTV stakeholder status)

[Matt Gluggles]

Hifistud, I notice that ECCA are one of the stakeholders, so perhaps they could do a consultation of their own and push this into the consultataion process ?

[hifistud]

It's possible - we started coverage of the whole thing tonight, and will be continuing next week and the week after - this could be a turning point, if handled correctly...

[lobeydosser]

I was at the surgery today for my annual Flu Jab and I had a long conversation with the Practise Nurse on the subject of e-cigs and the fact that I was now mixing my own e-juices.
She was most interested in the whole process and the outcome of our conversation is that she will look out a selection of her out of date syringes and drop them into me tomorrow.
#icon_thumbsup#

[hifistud]

That's good news - one can only hope that enough of the NICE stakeholders take the same attitude and feed back to the consultation accordingly.

[timnowvapes]

If you're unfortunate to have a GP who wouldn't know an e-cig if you stuck it up their nose, just ask for a Peak Flow test / BP test, if you have had prior chest smoke related issues, this will be all the proof they need. Just have a Vape Escape or equivalent vender's business card or flyer at hand - it's where most have mine have gone, they can't or won't recommend them officially, but they will point in the right direction to other patients, especially if they have one patient who has armed them with proof and knowledge

It's about the only half decent thing my GP has done, listened and acted upon Vaping, and I'm sure a fair few patients have and will have had benefits from it. Plus he thinks their cool looking gadgets, him being the only GP I know of to have an engraved digital wireless stethoscope He saw my latest set up which was the stainless steel mini ego battery coupled to the vivi-nova - it had the shiny and cool factor!

Unless the E-cig industry trumps up what a quarter of a million is it to have a product tested and evaluated? An e-cig is never going to have an official stamp of approval or recommendation..........things are nice just as they are, for now

It would just be nice to see papers stop spouting rubbish stories about