Marketing of electronic cigarettes needs to be regulated to protect children becoming addicted to nicotine, campaigners warned today.
A new study claims that e-cigarette marketing is using apps on mobile phones, social media and pop stars – and that the devices are being linked to popular events such as the Glastonbury festival.
Cancer Research UK, which released the analysis, said it did not want to ban e-cigarettes but to ensure they were not used to hook children on nicotine.
The charity said it recognised that e-cigarettes might help hardened smokers reduce the risk they face from smoking.
Alison Cox, from Cancer Research UK, said: “We aren’t opposed to e-cigarettes being marketed to adult smokers – and hope that the marketing effort encourages many smokers to give up.
“There’s evidence in the report – particularly on social media – of e-cigs being promoted as cool and the latest thing and applying all the kinds of marketing ploys that would be used to attract a youth market including involving pop stars, computer games and one e-cig company even sponsoring a football youth team’s strip.”
Researcher Professor Gerard Hastings, from Stirling University, Scotland, said: “E-cigarettes and other alternative nicotine delivery devices are probably much safer than conventional cigarettes, and so if smokers switch to them many lives could be saved.
“But the market is looking to make money, not improve public health, and this is creating many dangers."
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