E-cigarettes to be licenced and treated as 'medicines' Electronic cigarettes are to be regulated as medicines for the first time in the UK - meaning they will have to meet strict safety standards or be banned. The nicotine-containing products, which have become increasingly popular around the world with 1.3m users in the UK, will have to meet stricter government regulations by 2016. E-cigarettes that satisfy regulators will be available on prescription from the NHS as an aid to quitting smoking. The decision, announced by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulation Agency (MHRA), covers all nicotine-containing products currently available. Regulation will mean that manufacturers will have to seek a licence and will be banned from advertising e-cigarettes to under 16s. Product labels will have to sign-post to support for quitting smoking and Campaigners say that e-cigarettes could undermine efforts to reduce smoking, but there is also increasing evidence that e-cigarettes are being used by smokers as an alternative to tobacco. The MHRA said that none of the e-cigarettes currently on the market met safety standards required for licensing as a medicine and that it therefore did not yet recommend their use to help quit smoking. They are, however, much safer than tobacco and would be allowed time to ensure their ingredients and mechanisms met Government safety standards. "It is not about banning products that some people find useful," said Jeremy Mean, group manager at the MHRA. It is about making sure that smokers have an effective alternative that they can rely on to meet their needs. E-cigarettes mimic smoking behaviour by turning nicotine and other chemicals into vapour that is inhaled. They are subject to restrictions on sales in several countries and banned in Brazil, Norway and Singapore.