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Taking a stance sharply at odds with most American public health officials, a major British medical organization urged smokers to switch to electronic cigarettes, saying they are the best hope in generations for people addicted to tobacco cigarettes to quit. The recommendation, laid out in a report published Thursday by the Royal College of Physicians, summarizes the growing body of science on e-cigarettes and finds that their benefits far outweigh the potential harms. (Tavernise, 4/27)

Among the report’s conclusions are that e-cigarettes aren’t a gateway to smoking tobacco for current nonsmokers and that they likely lead tobacco smokers to try to quit regular cigarettes when they otherwise wouldn’t. “This report lays to rest almost all of the concerns over these products, and concludes that, with sensible regulation, electronic cigarettes have the potential to make a major contribution towards preventing the premature death, disease and social inequalities in health that smoking currently causes in the U.K.,” said John Britton, director of the U.K. Center for Tobacco & Alcohol Studies at the University of Nottingham, who chaired the panel responsible for the report. (Mickle and Chaudhuri, 4/27)

Oklahoma has received $76 million in the latest annual payment from the tobacco industry as part of a 1999 settlement of a lawsuit against tobacco companies. State Treasurer Ken Miller said Wednesday that $57 million goes to the Tobacco Settlement Endowment Trust Fund and the remainder to a fund for health care-related projects and to the state attorney general's evidence fund. (4/27)