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Some companies are now investing billions of dollars in e-cigarettes, hoping they can maintain a market for their products without killing their consumers. The science in favour of e-cigarettes is maturing and the U.K. government’s recent evidence update suggests that e-cigarettes are 95 per cent less harmful to health than normal cigarettes. And earlier this month, the Royal Society for Public Health issued a statement on nicotine being no more harmful to health than caffeine. Based on this evidence, it is time for public health groups in the U.S. and Canada to recommend that smokers who seek to quit should switch to e-cigarettes.

Forty-two million Americans still smoke. Almost 500,000 Americans die from their habit every year. We need to act faster to adopt smarter regulations aimed at accelerating the transition out of harmful tar-based cigarettes.

As for media trends, a review by the Vitality Institute found that over the last two years, there was an 1,800 per cent increase in e-cigarette mentions in top-tier media coverage in the U.S. E-cigarettes now eclipse tobacco and traditional cigarettes in stories about smoking and its effects. Yet most e-cigarette articles never highlight the product’s benefits. Instead they focus on scary stories: exploding e-cigarettes; kids overdosing on nicotine liquid; and even doctors and medical associations’ concerns about e-cigarettes being as harmful as, or worse than, regular cigarettes. The impact of these distorted media stories has led many smokers who had moved to e-cigarettes to move back to regular cigarettes.

It is time to end the war on e-cigarettes and view them as the smoking cessation aid that they are. This cultural change begins with a smarter regulatory path. Policymakers need to adopt regulations that encourage smokers to shift to reduced-harm products such as e-cigarettes and tighten up on regulatory actions aimed at regular cigarettes.