A leading health academic is calling for tighter regulation of e-cigarette marketing tactics to stop children from being drawn into a smoking habit.
Linda Bauld, professor of health policy at Stirling university, said there was concern about the way companies were advertising their products.
She said that although experts were yet to conclusively determine the health risks of e-cigarettes, they still contained highly addictive nicotine.
Currently, e-cigarette companies are allowed to advertise their products within a regulatory framework, meaning they cannot make smoking cessation claims or target young people.
The professor, who is deputy director of the UK Centre for Tobacco and Alcohol Studies, suggests that the regulations are not tough enough and that the products are getting wide exposure in areas where children can see them.
Advertisement
“I’d say that the evidence of marketing being targeted at children is mixed, but there’s definitely a lot of it,” she said.
“It’s a cause for concern and we need marketing regulations. The Advertising Standards Authority [ASA] has a role to protect the public against harmful advertising.”
A recent Scottish government-commissioned survey found that thousands of secondary school pupils have been exposed to e-cigarette marketing. It discovered that 60 per cent of pupils questioned had seen e-cigarettes for sale in shops, shopping centres or on stalls.
The forthcoming tobacco and nicotine bill proposes a ban on the sale of e-cigarettes to under-18s, proxy purchases by adults for minors and restrictions on the marketing of the products.
Professor Bauld said some progress had been made but restrictions did not go far enough.
Advertisement
“We do have some controls in place. Regulations were brought in last year to allow the public to complain about e-cigarette adverts. There have been a number of complaints, and two adverts were forced to be withdrawn.”
She said she was also concerned about e-cigarette companies being bought by tobacco giants: “Ideally they should be distributed by independent companies, as the objective of the tobacco industry is to keep people smoking. We want to try and keep a lid on some of the tobacco companies’ involvement.”
John Watson, deputy chief executive at Action on Smoking and Health Scotland, said: “We’re concerned at some of the marketing we’ve seen. It’s hard to walk down the street without seeing adverts, and some of them are reminiscent of old tobacco adverts.”
The ASA said: “The rules require e-cigarette ads to be responsible, with a particular emphasis placed on protecting young people and non-smokers. The ASA will not hesitate to take action against any ad that breaks the rules.”