WHO urges stiff regulatory curbs on e-cigarettes

The World Health Organisation (WHO) called on Tuesday for stiff regulation of electronic cigarettes as well as bans on indoor use, advertising and sales to minors, in the latest bid to control the booming new market. In a long-awaited report that will be debated by member states at a meeting in October in Moscow, the United Nations health agency also voiced concern at the concentration of the $3 billion market in the hands of transnational tobacco companies. ‘In a nutshell, the WHO report shows that e-cigarettes and similar devices pose threats to public health,’ Douglas Bettcher, director of the agency’s department on non-communicable diseases, told a news briefing in Geneva. The uptake of e-cigarettes, which use battery-powered cartridges to produce a nicotine-laced vapour, has rocketed in the last two years – but there is fierce debate about their risks. Because they are so new there is a lack of long-term scientific evidence to support their safety and some fear they could be a ‘gateway’ to nicotine addiction and tobacco smoking, according to a news agency.