Reuters Insider - Will UK e-cigarette ruling boost sales?

Philip Morris CR as

19/08/2015 18:28

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 https://insider.thomsonreuters.com/link.html?cn=share&cid=1469696&shareToken=Mzo4NDhmYjQ4OS0wNzg2LTQzNzctYjQ5ZC1iMzdlMTJhYTVkMjE%3D&playerName=ReutersNews 
                                                                       
 Source:             Thomson Reuters                                   
                                                                       
 Description:        Health officials in Britain have for the first    
                     time endorsed e-cigarettes, saying they are 95    
                     percent safer than tobacco equivalents and even   
                     suggesting doctors should be able to prescribe    
                     them.                                             
 
 
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Transcript (May be auto-generated)

                 On offer soon from your doctor? Maybe. A UK government agency is calling for E- 
cigarettes to be made available on prescription. Public Health England says the 
devices are about 95% less harmful than regular smoking, and it says they could 
be a gamer-changer in helping people to give up tobacco. As time progresses 
we're going to accumulate more evidence and more data both on the use of 
E-cigarettes and their impacts. So we'll be able to update our estimates in 
terms of the long term use. But for the short and medium term as an 

aid to help people to quit, we certainly want to see more people embarking on 
that journey. Not everyone is convinced. Last year, the World Health 
Organization came out against E-cigarettes saying that governments should be 
regulating their use more strictly. The global tobacco industry sells about 5.7 
trillion regular cigarettes a year. But the number is shrinking due to increased
health awareness, weak consumer spending, and higher taxes. Companies like 
Philip Morris and Imperial Tobacco both reported falling revenue on Wednesday 
from traditional cigarettes. They're offsetting that with specialist brands and 
E- cigarettes are increasingly playing a part. Some firms in the industry have 
already bought makers of the metal devices. Studies like this could fuel further
investment in a product already used by 2.6 million people in the UK