A leading Glasgow doctor has said he would be "exceptionally worried" if his children were of school age amid concern the young are being targeted with highly addictive vapes.
Dr Jonathan Coutts, a consultant paediatrician at Glasgow's Royal Hospital for Children, said there had been cases where children had been admitted to hospital after using e-cigarettes.
In June, it was reported that eight children from a single school in Lincolnshire had been hospitalised after using vapes.
Dr Coutts said such cases were rare but warned there is a risk the products will create a new generation of young people who are addicted to nicotine.
He said the health risks of the drug were being 'underplayed' by public health leaders.
He is among a group of respiratory experts calling on the Scottish Government to adopt a similar approach to the sale of cigarettes including plain packaging and taking vapes off public display.
New reforms announced in May in Australia will see products banned except in pharmacies. China has also banned the sale of flavoured vapes.
Dr Coutts, who has highlighted research on the effects of nicotine on children and adolescents and the developing brain, said he was worried the UK was "sleepwalking into a public health disaster".
He said public health officials in England were continuing to reference a 'flawed' study from 2014 that asserts they are 95% less harmful than cigarettes.
"Initially paediatricians didn't have much interest in it [vaping] because it was a thing that was being mostly looked at by adult addiction specialists as a way of getting your 60-year-old man, who has smoked all his life off cigarettes," said Dr Coutts.
"Nicotine is a nasty drug.
"Maybe for a 30 to 40-year-old person it's less harmful but for the developing brain of an adolescent...or a foetus...it affects brain development, it affects lung development.
"We know you can get people with acute toxicity. Nobody smokes a few cigarettes and ends up in intensive care.
"I don't have young children, my children are grown up but I have friends who have children in late primary and early secondary and the girls, in particular, will say all the kids are in the toilets vaping.
"If I had young children I would be exceptionally worried that they are getting hooked. The nicotine concentration in vapes is very high.
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"It's difficult to smoke 20 or 30 cigarettes but it's easy to get through one vape."
Analysis by the Scottish Government showed that 10% of Scotland's S4 pupils surveyed regularly use e-cigarettes despite it being illegal for those under 18 to use the products. More than a fifth of 14-year-olds have tried a vape at least once.
Dr Coutts is concerned that the numbers will be a lot higher in reality.
He referenced a big chain candy store in Glasgow city centre that had sweets on one side and fruit and candy-flavoured vapes on the other.
"This looks like it is designed to attract children," said Dr Coutts.
"They have bright colours, they have nice names - a bit like alcopops.
"I'm not sure how many 60 to 70-year-old men go in there to stock up on their vapes along with a bag of sweets.
In September, vape manufacturer Juul agreed to pay nearly $440 million over a period of six to 10 years to settle a two-year investigation by 33 states into the marketing of its high-nicotine vaping products to young people.
Dr Coutts said that it was of concern that for the first time in 25 years, smoking rates in Australia had gone up.
READ MORE: Letters: We must ban single-use vapes if we are to protect our children
He said: "That's on the background of research that showed that if you have never been a smoker and you vape you are three times more likely to become a smoker."
He said he was not an addiction expert but reviews carried out by other countries had shown that there was no strong evidence that e-cigarettes are useful smoking cessation tools and that users often returned to cigarettes.
The paediatrician said it was still "an unknown" what the long-term health effects of vaping would be, but commented that it took 50 years to establish the severe harmful effects of cigarettes.
He wants the Scottish Government to consider "sensible legislation" to try to limit their exposure to children.
He said: "You don't need to ban vapes, you just say, this is for adults but we make sure it's not attractive to children," he said. "We hide it, we do all the things that we did for smoking.
"There is legislation I'm told that could just be lifted, you don't need to actually pass any new laws.
"We are going to treat it like cigarettes and make sure it's just as difficult to get hold of a vape as it is a cigarette.
"If we know there is a chance of damage do you not think we should be a little bit cautious about promoting it.
"I think we should definitely be thinking, can we do things differently in Scotland because we are a small country, we have easier ways of introducing things."
A Scottish Government spokeswoman said: “We are very concerned by reports of young people obtaining e-cigarettes or vaping products and have asked ASH Scotland to undertake work with young people to help them understand the risks associated with using nicotine vaping products.
"We are also reviewing current education and learning materials on vaping and tobacco smoking to ensure that they provide the greatest impact.
“Last year we consulted on restrictions on the advertising and promotion of vaping products.
"These are aimed at reducing the visibility of vapes to children, young people and adult non-smokers.
"Any action we seek to take will build on the regulations already in place to restrict the marketing, promotion and sale of vaping products to under 18s.
"Our refreshed Tobacco Action Plan will also publish in the autumn and will include further action on underage vaping.”
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