Public Health England

Public Health England have issued some mostly sensible advice about e-cigarettes in the hope of scotching some of the myths and junk science that has been pouring out of California for the last five years.

Dick and Clarky point out that PHE couldn't resist inserting some anti-smoking authoritarianism into their e-cigarette report. It is also somewhat amusing that they are calling for e-cigarettes to be given out by the NHS on prescription a day after it was announced that the only medically approved e-cigarette has been withdrawn from the market.

Nevertheless, the PHE report is worth reading and the authors should be given credit for trying to debunk some of the scare stories that threaten to bring the vaping revolution to a halt. My only concern is that the report won't be taken seriously by some because PHE has gained a reputation for talking nonsense (eg. here, here and here).

Speaking of which, I wrote this article about PHE and their mad schemes for the Spectator last week.

Unelected, unaccountable, and out of control, Public Health England has become a magnet for every crank, puritan, food faddist, temperance zealot, anti-capitalist and social justice warrior with a penchant for remaking the world in their own image. What do we get in return? Smaller portions, artificial sweeteners, higher prices, fewer choices and a stream of increasingly bizarre pronouncements from an agency that seems more interested in manipulating the population than in providing sound advice upon which we can make our own choices.

Do have a read.