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ELECTRONIC cigarettes will be available free on the NHS from tomorrow – despite concerns by Scots GPs and government ministers about their safety .

E-cigs will be prescribed by doctors, alongside nicotine patches and chewing gum, in a bid to help smokers quit .

But Scots GPs said more research into their long-term effects is needed and public health minister Maureen Watt warned that they are “not risk-free”.

Last week, an American study revealed electronic cigarettes may be as harmful as smoking.

The e-Voke, made by British American Tobacco, is the first e-cig to be licensed by the UK’s Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency.

They cost about £20 and replacement cartridges are about £10 a week. A week’s supply of nicotine patches and chewing gum costs between £10 and £13.

One in 20 Scots uses e-cigs but BMA Scotland have backed a ban on them in public places and sale to under-18s.

Dr Andrew Thomson, a GP in Tayside and a member of the BMA’s Scottish Council, said: “Further research is needed to learn more about the long-term effects of electronic cigarettes to uncover whether they are an effective and safe way of reducing tobacco harm.”

BMA Scotland said it was up to individual GPs to decide whether to prescribe e-cigarettes to patients.

Dr Jean Turner, a patron of the Scotland Patients Association, said she would prescribe them if she was still a GP.

She said: “If you spend money now helping people getting off cigarettes, it will save them a lot of misery in the long term and save the NHS money treating people with vascular and lung disease.”

And SNP MSP Watt said: “Smoking cessation services are exploring how they can best support users of e-cigarettes to quit tobacco for good but the products are not risk-free.”

Last month, MSPs backed Scottish Government plans to introduce a law restricting the advertising of e-cigarettes and banning their sale to under-18s.