British American Tobacco's e-Voke could be prescribed by the NHS to help people give up smoking.

The long-term effects of vaping won't be known for some time, but despite some cautionary advice and unsettling research into flavourings, the general consensus is e-cigarettes are better for you than the real thing. Many smokers have turned to vaping to help kick (or at least transfer) their habit in smoking, and for this reason, the UK's Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) recently approved an e-cigarette for clinical use for the first time.

As Reuters reports, this first e-cig was granted the appropriate medical device license towards the end of last year, meaning its e-Voke vapouriser could be prescribed by the NHS as a smoking cessation treatment. It's the first e-cigarette to receive this clinical indication in the UK, where drugs that numb cravings and nicotine-replacement patches, gums and inhalers have traditionally been the go-to, state-sponsored therapies.

E-cigarettes are facing greater regulation this year, as new EU rules coming into effect in May will classify them as tobacco-related products. The increased scrutiny should only serve to make vaping products safer, and the MHRA is confident e-cigs play an important role in helping people quit smoking. "We want to ensure licensed nicotine containing products -- including e-cigarettes -- which make medicinal claims are available and meet appropriate standards of safety, quality and efficacy to help reduce the harms from smoking," the MHRA said in a statement..

In the future, as most e-cigarettes are designed as more healthy and safer or even more practical and functional, maybe the government and the more public will consider vaping as another green, comfortable and exquisite lifestyle for entertainment and joy. What matters the ecig designers believe in is the improvement and advancement of the product itself but not  to regulate this consuming style and this whole industry. Maybe this is what we should think more about in the future. With the first ecig to be used in clinics, the public may see the more light future the vape business can bring to humans.