The World Health Organization recommended Tuesday that nations regulate electronic cigarettes and ban them from use indoors until the exhaled vapor is proven not to harm bystanders. It also called for a ban on sales to minors of the popular nicotine-vapor products, and to either forbid or keep to a minimum any advertising, promotion or sponsorship.
The Geneva-based agency said the "apparently booming" $3 billion global market for more than 400 brands of e-cigarettes means appropriate regulation is needed. Regulation "is a necessary precondition for establishing a scientific basis on which to judge the effects of their use, and for ensuring that adequate research is conducted and the public health is protected and people made aware of the potential risks and benefits," the report said.
A day earlier, the American Heart Association urged more regulation particularly to keep them out of the hands of young people and said it supported the use of the battery-powered devices that vaporize nicotine only as a last resort to help smokers quit.
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-The Associated Press
