The pity, to me, is that ASH should be our ally.
and (currently) in the UK, although not our ally exactly, they are not our enemy either.
They have expressed some interest in e-cigs, but won't recommend them per se.... still giving the line "recommend approved NRT products" (understandably) - but they qualify it by saying that it is because of the lack of full and complete studies, and have also commented to the effect that, notwithstanding the lack of studies, they would appear to be much better than cigarettes.....
So, in short, ASH (UK) would appear to be a very different animal to ASH (US)