One of the concerns that has been raised about e-cigarettes has been a fear that they could appeal to young people and potentially act as a ‘gateway’ to conventional smoking.

Research undertaken by the Association for Young People’s Health in UK, found that the proportion of young people ‘experimenting’ with e-cigarettes ranged between an eighth and a quarter of young people, but that regular use by secondary school children was limited to about 1%, and those children generally engaged in smoking behaviour.

We need to keep an eye on it, because somebody will figure out what you need to add to e-cigarettes to make them more addictive to non-smokers. At the moment, non-smokers do not progress to daily vaping; it is really difficult. If they do, they often vape nicotine-free, just for some kind of flavour and behaviour.

There would be a very legitimate concern if we saw large numbers of young people who have never smoked becoming daily or E- Cigarettes users.

youth experiment with e-cigarettes very largely confined to young people who have smoked. There is some evidence that young people who have vaped but never smoked are more likely subsequently to smoke.