Instead of sneaking behind the bicycle sheds for a crafty cigarette, teenagers nowadays are far more likely to vape on a sweetly flavoured e-cigarette.
The numbers of 11 to 15-year-olds smoking and drinking are at record lows, but figures showed yesterday that 22 per cent had tried an e-cigarette. Novelty, price, the flavours and a lack of restrictions on under-18s buying the devices were likely reasons.
It was the first time the survey, from the Health and Social Care Information Centre, asked about e-cigarettes.
Martin McKee, professor of European public health at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, said: “We have sufficient grounds to be concerned because we have no idea of the long-term effects of e-cigarettes. They are promoted as a quitting