Top doctor warns e-cigarettes are creating a generation of kids addicted to nicotine
The US surgeon general issued a stark warning, claiming vaping in teenagers "is not safe" and is now "a major public health concern"
The US surgeon general has issued a stark warning over the risks of e-cigarettes - putting him at odds with UK public health officials.
In a new report, America's most senior doctor Vivek Murthy said e-cigarette use among young people and young adults "is not safe" and is "now a major public health concern".
He said the brains of younger people are more vulnerable to the negative consequences of nicotine - the key ingredient in e-cigarettes.
"The effects include addiction, priming for use of other addictive substances, reduced impulse control, deficits in attention and cognition, and mood disorders," his report said.
Dr Murthy said the negative health effects and potentially harmful doses of heated chemicals in e-cigarette liquids are not completely understood. And he warned they could become a gateway to smoking normal cigarettes, saying vaping "is strongly associated with the use of other tobacco products among youth and young adults, particularly the use of combustible tobacco products".
His strongly-worded report said that serious action was needed to keep the products out of the hands of the nation's young people.
In interviews with US media, he added: "We know enough right now to say that youth and young adults should not be using e-cigarettes or any other tobacco product, for that matter.
"The key bottom line here is that the science tells us the use of nicotine-containing products by youth, including e-cigarettes, is unsafe.
The key bottom line here is that the science tells us the use of nicotine-containing products by youth, including e-cigarettes, is unsafe
Dr Vivek Murthy
Dr Murthy's view contrasts significantly with a report from Public Health England (PHE) last year which said e-cigarettes should not be viewed in the same way as smoking.
The PHE study said "best estimates show e-cigarettes are 95 per cent less harmful to your health than normal cigarettes, and when supported by a smoking cessation service, help most smokers to quit tobacco altogether".
It said that while protecting non-smoking children was an "important goal", any new regulations should also "maximise the public health opportunities of electronic cigarettes".
The report - which was heavily criticised by some scientists - said e-cigarettes could help smokers quit.
"While vaping may not be 100 per cent safe, most of the chemicals causing smoking-related disease are absent and the chemicals which are present pose limited danger," the PHE report added.
PHE chief executive Duncan Selbie also defended their use and said it was not true that e-cigarettes were leading children to smoke the real thing.
He added: "If you are a smoker and you can't give up through other means, try an e-cigarette."
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The PHE report came in for much criticism from some scientists writing in the British Medical Journal (BMJ) and The Lancet.
They said it was based on poor quality evidence and pointed to links between some experts involved in the study, the tobacco industry and firms that manufacture e-cigarettes.
In February, estimates from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) revealed there are 2.2 million current e-cigarette users - 4 per cent of the population.
Some 59 per cent of e-cigarette smokers also smoke regular cigarettes alongside, while 53 per cent said they used vaping as an aid to quitting regular smoking.
Just over one in five (22 per cent) of current users said their main reason for vaping is because they feel e-cigarettes are less harmful than cigarettes.
A spokeswoman for the non-smoking charity Ash said of the new US surgeon general report: "Ash is puzzled by the level of concern being expressed about e-cigarettes by the surgeon general.
"In the US as in the UK, young people are experimenting with e-cigarettes but vaping has not been associated with an increase in smoking, a point which is not made sufficiently clear in the report.
"While nicotine is not completely harmless, it is smoking that is lethal. In the UK we have a regulatory system that restricts advertising and controls sales to young people. There is no evidence of significant regular use by non-smoking children and, as in the US, smoking rates are going down, not up."
