Blue Hole New Consumer Report, October 17 - E-cigarettes have grown exponentially over the past decade, according to the Guardian. Vape shops have proliferated on British high streets, the global vaping market has grown 8,000fold since 2016 and the vape maker sponsors football and Formula One teams, but it divides opinion sharply.

On the one hand, the tobacco industry - and, to some extent, Public Health England - argue that e-cigarettes are a safer alternative to smoking and that they can help smokers quit. On the other hand, public health experts, including the World Health Organization, have pointed to its dangers, especially for children and young people, and urged much more caution than the liberal approach Britain has decided to take.

Although the proportion of the population who smoke has declined significantly in recent decades, it remains the single biggest cause of preventable disease in the UK. Cigarettes are a legal consumer product that will kill most users if used as recommended by the manufacturer. So anything that helps reduce smoking levels and overall harm levels would be welcomed.

Public health experts are concerned that e-cigarettes can encourage long-term nicotine dependence. There is also evidence that it can be a gateway for young people to take up smoking.

Despite the tobacco industry's claims, the evidence on whether e-cigarettes help smokers quit is mixed.

Who concludes that the evidence to date on the use of e-cigarettes as a smoking cessation aid is inconclusive. It is therefore worrying that Public Health England is exaggerating the evidence on vaping and smoking cessation.

There is also growing evidence that e-cigarettes pose significant health risks. While they don't contain the dangerous tar of traditional cigarettes, they do contain nicotine, a highly addictive chemical with health risks. Some studies have linked it to heart and nervous system diseases and negatively affect brain development in children and young adults. E-cigarettes may be linked to acute lung injury; Rare but terrifying stories of collapsed lungs in young people who use e-cigarettes.

Public health experts are concerned that e-cigarettes encourage long-term nicotine dependence compared with the use of gum and patches designed to get people to quit smoking. There is also evidence that it can be a gateway to smoking for young people who have never smoked. The WHO has concluded that e-cigarettes are harmful to health and unsafe, and that it is too early to know the long-term risks. There has been much criticism of Public Health England's claim that e-cigarettes are 95% safer than smoking cigarettes.

In the UK, unlike some other countries, e-cigarettes are very lightly regulated, although studies have shown that e-cigarette liquids can contain several times the amount of nicotine claimed on packaging, as well as other harmful chemicals. Advertising is rife, with manufacturers looking for ways to circumvent rules aimed at limiting direct marketing to children on social media platforms like TikTok, using bright colors and offering a variety of kid-friendly flavors. Despite it being illegal to sell e-cigarettes to anyone under 18, levels of smoking among 11 - to 18-year-olds have almost doubled in the past three years as smoking levels remain constant.

As long as the long-term risks are unknown, the UK is wrong to adopt such a laissez-faire attitude towards e-cigarettes. E-cigarettes should be offered as part of smoking cessation programmes, but outside these, sales should be strictly regulated, with no advertising, plain packaging, health warnings and bans in public places. Ministers should invest more in smoking cessation programmes, which evidence shows are more effective in helping people quit.