This week a California Senate panel approved a package of six anti-tobacco bills that seek to raise the legal smoking age to 21 and ban the use of electronic cigarettes in public places such as restaurants, for example.

The recent surge in popularity of e-cigarettes in the UK has come hand-in-hand with concerns that they could re-normalise smoking and encourage people to take up the habit, not to mention the ongoing debate over safety and efficacy.

Despite those limitations, the study “is the strongest evidence to date that e-cigarettes might pose a health hazard by encouraging adolescents to start smoking conventional tobacco products”, said Dr. Nancy Rigotti, director of a tobacco research and treatment center at Massachusetts General Hospital. “Students who have never smoked a traditional cigarette are using e-cigarettes“.

“Renaming e-cigarettes is a silly idea”.

The review, commissioned by Public Health England (PHE) – an arm of the British Department of Health – goes further and suggests that e-cigarettes may be contributing to falling smoking rates among adults and young people.

And he was concerned that many people use e-cigarettes to supplement or slightly reduce their smoking.

But research shows they are much safer for individuals than cigarettes.

Chief executive of the RSPH, Shirley Cramer, said nicotine was no more harmful than caffeine and urged a greater use of e-cigarettes, which the charity would like to see the products renamed as “nicotine sticks or vapourisers”. Bold marketing tactics, celebrity endorsements, endless flavor choices and a plethora of online videos instructing users on how to mix their own e-cigarette liquid, or “e-juice”, have only added fuel to the fire.

AN East Lancashire businessman has criticised the findings of a report from Government health officials which says Global Positioning System should be able to prescribe e-cigarettes on the NHS. In addition, it’s recognised their potential to help people quit smoking altogether, and says it looks forward to the day when the NHS can prescribe medicinally regulated devices. Laws banning the sale of e-cigarettes to minors have been enacted or proposed in several states.

He said a study in the journal Addiction had recently found very few e-cigarette users actually quit smoking after a year, with even the best results showing more than 70 per cent did not quit.