The debate continues over e-cigarettes despite the growing number of surveys and studies that have produced positive comments on the product. More good news which answersseveral criticisms of e-cigarettes came from The Health Survey in England. HopefullyAmerican health officials and politicians will take note of it.The survey answers criticisms of e-cigarettes being a gateway to tobacco smoking. It foundthat among men who were not smokers, only 1% had ever tried e-cigarettes, while 29% ofsmokers and 6% of ex-smokers had tried them. Proportions were similar for women, said thesurvey, which was published this Wednesday (December 10).The Health Survey for England was carried out by the Joint Health Surveys Unit of NatCenSocial Research and the Research Department of Epidemiology and Public Health atUniversity College London. It interviewed 8,795 adults and 2,185 children.That’s one of several studies that have disproved the claim that once people, especiallyyoungsters, start using the healthier e-cigarettes, it’ll only be a question of time before theyuse tobacco cigarettes. So all those politicians eager to place restrictions on e-cigarettesneed not be afraid of a whole new generation of tobacco smokers being generated via theuse of e-cigarettes.Can’t politicians and health officials see that these figures also disprove another one of theirclaims? Namely their theories that e-cigarettes aren’t able to stop smokers continuing theirdeadly habit. This survey shows that smokers are in fact turning to e-cigarettes and we allknow there are countless stories of smokers who have successfully kicked the habit via theiruse of e-cigarettes."While it is clearly important to continue to monitor both smoking rates and use of electroniccigarettes in adults and children, so far there is no evidence that use of electronic cigarettesis proving to be a gateway into smoking," said Deborah Arnott, chief executive of ASH(Action on Smoking and Health).The views are echoed by Peter Hajek in the open access journal BMC Medicine. Hajek isthe Professor and director of the Tobacco Dependence Research Unit at Queen MaryUniversity of London. He rightly describes tobacco cigarettes as being “responsible fordisease and premature death” while e-cigarettes “only appeal to smoker and generatesnegligible rates of regular use among non-smoking children who try it.” He continues: “Whichone would you prefer your nicotine addicted father to use? And if your children were to try anicotine product, which of these two would you prefer that they lay their hands on?”As for the fear that using e-cigarettes will cause there to be an increase in use of cigarettes,he says: “This appears a highly improbable concern. There is no precedent for a safertechnology to increase the use of its less safe competitor."So that’s two more positive views on e-cigarettes that discredit most criticisms of theproduct. Let’s hope US politicians will read them and take note before jumping on the anti-e-cigarettes bandwagon.