"Vaping" will soon be out for kids in the UK: plans to ban sales of electronic cigarettes to under-18s were announced last week by the government and could come into force within a year. The nation joins the 26 US states that have banned sales to minors on the basis that smoking e-cigarettes, or vaping, might tempt them to try smoking, which globally kills 6 million people each year.
"We do not yet know the harm that e-cigarettes can cause to adults, let alone to children, but they are not risk-free," said Sally Davies, the UK government's Chief Medical Officer for England. E-cigarettes dispense nicotine as a vapour, but are safer than cigarettes because they do not contain the other harmful substances found in tobacco.
But fears remain that children could become addicted to the nicotine in e-cigarettes, and that vaping could de-stigmatise smoking. "It does make sense to restrict the availability of a potentially addictive product," says Martin Dockrell, director of research and policy at anti-smoking lobby group ASH.
The UK banned sales of real cigarettes to under-18s in 2007. 12-year-olds can legally buy nicotine replacement products such as gums and patches.
Research last year showed that e-cigarettes were as effective as gums and patches at helping smokers quit or cut down. European Union regulators were last week accused by a prominent group of scientists of drafting a scientifically unjustifiable law to limit too strictly the nicotine content of e-cigarettes. In a letter, the scientists expressed their concern that smokers using e-cigarettes to quit might return to real cigarettes if they find the nicotine content of e-cigarettes to be unsatisfying.
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