Ireland: HSE Plans Blanket Ban on E-cigarettes

Source from:  Irish Independent (ie)  04/03/2014

E Health Service Executive (HSE) plans to ban electronic cigarettes on all its campuses.

It is already the HSE's policy that hospitals and other healthcare sites will be tobacco-free by 2015 – and now e-cigarettes will be included as part of this policy.

A spokeswoman for the HSE told the Irish Independent: "The HSE leadership team has agreed to update the policy to include e-cigarettes.

"We are now in a process of consultation with managers and staff representatives around the implementation of the smoke-free campus policy."

A memo to the executive's leadership team from the HSE's Health and Wellbeing division earlier this month, warned that the HSE's ability to implement its tobacco-free campus policy is "increasingly facing difficulties" due to the use of e-cigarettes by staff and patients.

"The HSE has a legitimate concern that, because e-cigarettes resemble ordinary cigarettes, their use may promote or re-normalise smoking, making it harder to enforce our tobacco free campus policy," the memo said.

RISKS

It recommended that e-cigarettes should be prohibited on HSE campuses, "in the same way as tobacco products are".

The memo said the decision may be reviewed at a later stage if new evidence emerges on the value of e-cigarettes as a smoking cessation aid and their health related impacts.

It added: "This review would be balanced against the possible impact of their use in terms of promoting or re-normalising smoking."

According to the 'Irish Medical News', the memo also pointed out that the "World Health Organisation is of the view that the safety of e-cigarettes has not been scientifically demonstrated and the potential risks they pose for the health of users remains undermined".

The HSE's tobacco-free campus policy was first published two years ago to "help change social norms around tobacco use, treat tobacco addiction as a healthcare issue, and promote smoking cessation by actively advising, encouraging and supporting people to quit smoking".

E-cigarettes contain nicotine but none of the cancer-causing substances in a regular cigarettes. Health Minister Dr James Reilly said recently he wanted to collect more evidence before deciding how to regulate them.

The HSE said that "consultation is ongoing at this time". Enditem