LONDON – Reuters reports that health officials in Britain are giving a positive endorsement to electronic cigarettes, saying the devices are 95% safer than tobacco equivalents and even suggest that doctors should be able to prescribe the “game-changing” devices to cigarette smokers who are trying to quit.

“E-cigarettes are not completely risk-free but when compared to smoking, evidence shows they carry just a fraction of the harm," said Kevin Fenton in a statement, a professor at the Public Health England (PHE), an agency of Britain's Department of Health.

The news source writes that according to the study, most of the chemicals that cause smoking-related diseases are absent in e-cigarettes, which makes them significantly less harmful than cigarettes and other tobacco products.

Authors of the study also hope that their findings will help British doctors and cessation services to be able to prescribe e-cigarettes for those who are trying to quit smoking. "Given the potential benefits as quitting aids, PHE looks forward to the arrival on the market of a choice of medicinally regulated products that can be made available to smokers by the NHS on prescription," the report said.

E-cigarettes are already the most popular quitting aids in Britain, according to the study, and could be a cheaper alternative to reducing cigarette smoking in lower-income areas. “E-cigarettes could be a game-changer in public health in particular by reducing the enormous health inequalities caused by smoking," said Professor Ann McNeil, co-author the study.