Campaigners call for all e-cigarette flavours to be BANNED immediately to protect kids
FLAVOURED e-cigarettes should be banned immediately to protect kids, top doctors warned today.
Options like strawberry, bubblegum and chocolate encourage youngsters to try the devices, and act as a "one-way bridge" to smoking, they said.
They are calling for an immediate ban on all flavourings, and want to see e-cigarettes regulated in the same way as regular fags.
Adverts that claim the devices are lower risk to kids and teenagers should also be banned, the team of experts said.
There is mounting evidence that vaping damages health, and that e-cigarettes are highly addictive, a statement published in the European Respiratory Journal warned.
Professor Thomas Ferkol, from Washington University in St Louis, who co-authored the paper, said: "Until recently, the risks of e-cigarettes and their rising popularity with children and adolescents were under-recognised, or ignored.
"We wrote this statement to address growing public health concerns over e-cigarette use among youths.
";Product design, flavours, marketing and perception of safety and acceptability have increased the appeal of e-cigarettes to young people.
"These products are 'normalising' smoking and leading to new generations addicted to nicotine."
Prof Ferkol along with colleagues from nine organisations in North and South America, Europe, Africa, Asia and Australia, are part of The Forum of International Respiratory Societies, which promotes lung health worldwide.
This new paper brings together a wide range of the research so far into e-cigarettes.
It shows that kids and teenagers are highly susceptible to nicotine addiction.
And reveals that the use of e-cigarettes has risen sharply in this age group - making it the most popular tobacco-related product in this age group.
These products are ‘normalising’ smoking and leading to new generations addicted to nicotine
Professor Thomas Ferkol, from Washington University in St Louis
The team of experts found growing evidence that e-cigarettes do act as a "one-way bridge" to cigarette smoking in adolescents.
Prof Ferkol added: "Some people truly believe e-cigarettes could be used as a smoking cessation technique, but these products are also an entry to nicotine and tobacco use in young people."
His colleague Professor Charlotta Pisinger from the University of Copenhagen, said while exposure to harmful ingredients is likely to be lower when using e-cigarettes, it does not mean they are harmless.
"When we are talking about children and adolescents who are trying e-cigarettes for the first time, we should not be comparing their use to traditional cigarettes.
"We should be comparing them to no tobacco use."
In the UK it is illegal for under-18s to buy e-cigarettes and e-liquids.
But the expert recommendations suggest that ban should be extended worldwide.
And as well as ban flavourings and adverts, the team said more research must be done to focus on the health effects of the devices.
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Dr Aneesa Vanker, from the University of Cape Town, added: "E-cigarettes are largely unregulated, particularly in low and middle-income countries.
"They are marketed as a smoking cessation toll and a safer alternative to tobacco cigarettes.
"However, there is growing evidence that nicotine has many acute and long-term adverse effects, including addiction.
"Young people are at particular risk for this.
"We want local, national and regional decision-makers to recognise the growing public health threat that e-cigarettes pose to children and adolescents.
"Inhaling something other than air is never good for a child's lungs."
MORE ON E-CIGARETTES
The call to ban flavoured e-liquids comes after various studies have linked certain chemicals in the flavourings to cancer.
Earlier this year, a team of scientists from Penn State College of Medicine, in the US, found citrus flavours like orange, lemon, grapefruit and lime and floral flavours like ginger, produce free radicals - toxins associated with the disease.
It reinforced the findings of a study published a month before, that found using e-cigarettes increases a vaper's risk of cancer.
In March a piece of research warned e-cigarettes do more harm than good, introducing teens to smoking.
A similar study in January found teens who start using e-cigarettes are twice as likely to become regular smokers within a year.