To coincide with No Smoking Day, RSPH is issuing a caution that e-cigarettes are being marketed as a sought after accessory and risk glamourising smoking.

Advertising campaigns, celebrity endorsement, the availability of different designs and flavours of e-cigarettes and the growing number of boutique shops selling them are all contributing to positioning e-cigarettes as an attractive product or accessory. Although e-cigarettes are less dangerous than cigarettes which contain tobacco, they still contain nicotine, an addictive and harmful substance.

Any marketing that creates a perception that e-cigarettes are attractive and fashionable may not only encourage young people or non-smokers to use e-cigarettes, but create a culture that encourages the smoking of tobacco products.

Shirley Cramer, Chief Executive of the RSPH, stated: “We are concerned that a modern day Marlboro Man situation may be born where some suppliers use any possible means to make e-cigarettes attractive to users. The public health community has worked hard to bring in smoking bans ensuring that public places such as restaurants and work places are now smoke free zones, however e-cigarettes are becoming commonplace and it is a worry that the young in particular could become desensitised to the use of e-cigarettes and as a result, cigarettes.

"The products are currently unlicensed with no standardisation of safety and there remain gaps in research concerning their effectiveness as a nicotine replacement therapies which must be addressed.”