OREANDA-NEWS  A south London council will provide pregnant women with free e-cigarettes to help them quit smoking and save money, BBC reported earlier this week, citing the local authority’s officials.

Women from low-income households “are much more likely to smoke in pregnancy” and thus they are in need of additional support, Lambeth Council’s spokesman said. 

“We are now planning to support the use of e-cigarettes for women who choose that route as their preferred aid for quitting tobacco, since this is less harmful compared to smoking,” the official was quoted as saying.

Lambeth Councillor Ben Kind explained that carers of young children will be also eligible for “free vape products.” In an official letter, seen by the BBC, Kind explains that the measure is aimed not only at “improving the health of the family” but also at saving approximately £2,000 ($2,260) a year per household that would otherwise be spent on cigarettes.

The cheapest pack of cigarettes in the UK costs about £10 (more than $11), with prices regularly increasing due to tobacco tax hikes.

“It is estimated that over 3,000 households in Lambeth fall under the poverty line due to smoking and many of these households include children,” King said in a letter.

Britain’s National Health Service (NHS) claims on its website that vapes are “far less harmful than cigarettes” and there is substantial evidence of their effectiveness in quitting smoking.

However, the NHS admits that “little research has been conducted into the safety of e-cigarettes and e-liquids in pregnancy.”

“It is not known whether the vapour is harmful to a baby in pregnancy,” it points out, adding that, while patches and gums remain a recommended option for pregnant women, vaping is still “much safer” than continuing to smoke.

According to UK government data, as of 2019, almost seven million people in the UK, or 14.1% of the population, smoked cigarettes.  Nearly three million people, or 5.7%, smoked e-cigarettes.

Earlier this year, research commissioned by charity Action on Smoking and Health (ASH), revealed that the cost of smoking to society totals more than £17 billion for England ($19 billion) each year. For the NHS, smoking costs about 2.4 billion ($2.7 billion) per year, according to ASH.