The World Health Organisation has distanced itself from a new high-tech cigarette substitute.
WHO said it did not back electronic cigarettes as a treatment for giving up smoking – as there is no proof of its effects.
The gadgets were developed in China four years ago and stores liquid nicotine. This is turned into a fine heated mist which the smoker breathes into the lungs.
WHO said some sellers of the devices were claiming its support – but this was untrue.
Douglas Bettcher, of WHO, said: "If the marketers of the electronic cigarette want to help smokers quit, then they need to conduct clinical studies and toxicity analyses and operate within the proper regulatory framework.
"Until they do that, WHO cannot consider the electronic cigarette to be an appropriate nicotine replacement therapy, and it certainly cannot accept false suggestions that it has approved and endorsed the product."
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