Dr. Helen McAvoy:

We have looked at some of that regarding alcohol marketing. There are some measures in the Public Health (Alcohol) Act that try to pin down what we mean when we talk about advertising that targets children. The data we see show that one in ten children under the age of 13 has tried an e-cigarette and that around 16% to 18% of those between 15 and 16 are current users. We may say we need the minimum legal age of sale to be 18 but we must ask whether that will be enough to reduce the appeal and accessibility of the products to children. The minimum legal age is a really good start. It is important to have a legal rule stipulating that products should not be sold to people under 18, but clearly children under 18 are getting them and finding them very appealing and interesting. According to a study, when children are asked why they have tried them, two thirds say they were just curious. The adolescent brain is a challenge at times. Sensation seeking, risk-taking, peer pressure and marketing are all in the mix. These are all the things we need to think about when regulating these products if we want to reduce use. The minimum legal age of sale is useful but I do not believe it is enough. The other aspects, concerning branding, the use of imagery and so on, must also be considered.

A brand of tobacco whose name I will refrain from using used a cartoon character for many years in its marketing, television advertising, billboards and so on. It continues to do so through other means. We need to learn from this because we are starting to see many similarities. We also had flavoured tobacco. We introduced legislation to remove menthol tobacco only two years ago. It is the same thing. Menthol in tobacco disguised its flavour. Having an easier starter product was part of the model. It was found later that it made it harder to quit. Flavoured products were used to target certain subgroups of the population. For example, the African-American community in the United States was very strongly targeted with menthol tobacco and so on. Therefore, there are lots of lessons to be learned from what went before in respect of tobacco and flavouring.