The NHS will make e-cigarettes available to the 8 million smokers in the UK to help them quit

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An electronic cigarette product has been licensed by the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency, meaning it can be prescribed by GPs.

The e-Voke, made by British American Tobacco, will be available in the new year. A report by Public Health England, King’s College London and Queen Mary University of London published earlier this year found that e-cigarettes carry just five per cent of the risk of tobacco.

It estimated that if every smoker in Britain switched to vaping about 75,000 lives a year could be saved.

Last night the Department of Health confirmed an e-cigarette has been licensed for medicinal use and will be prescribed alongside existing nicotine replacement therapies, including patches and chewing gum.

A spokesman said: “We know there are now more than a million ex-smokers who have used e-cigarettes to help them to quit smoking completely and that the evidence indicates they are significantly less harmful to health than smoking tobacco.