Ms Averil Power:

It is great to see Senator Black. It is the same argument as with alcohol. The reason the industry invests so much in advertising is to create this view that its product is a lifestyle choice and that it is cool, sexy and attractive. There are restrictions on direct online advertising for e-cigarettes under the tobacco products directive but the types of things we see on social media are influencers promoting vaping in the same way as cigarettes were traditionally promoted by attractive-looking people promoting the idea that smoking was cool. That is obviously very attractive to teenagers in particular and they are the market audience.

As we said earlier, we can deal with supply all we like, and it is very important that the Bill is bringing in restrictions on supply, but unless we deal with advertising and the relentless promotion of both alcohol and tobacco, we will never really fix the problem because if people - young people in particular - want something badly enough, they will get their hands on it. We have to do both. The problem with e-cigarettes in particular is that they are promoted as something that is cool. They mimic the physical actions of smoking and get young people addicted to nicotine in a way that we know leads them on to smoking. The industry would not be spending so much on that kind of marketing if it did not work. That is why it is so important that we deal not just with the supply but with everything that pushes that demand and makes people think that something which, as Mr. Macey said, is inherently dangerous and bad for us is actually cool. We have to deal with that insidious, disgusting use of advertising that gets children hooked on a product that is hugely harmful to their health and is likely to lead to them taking up smoking, with all the disease and death that smoking causes. We have to cut that off and make sure companies are not able to promote e-cigarettes in the same way they are no longer able to promote tobacco.