region have welcomed plans to ban the sale of e-cigarettes to under-18s.

Fiona Andrews, director of Smokefree South West – a body created to reduce smoking rates across the region – said: “We support the Government decision to make it illegal to sell e-cigarettes to under-18s.

The market for these products is growing rapidly, supported by advertising and promotion.

Regulated e-cigs are likely to be less harmful than smoked tobacco because they avoid the damaging cocktail of chemicals in smoke. However, we still don’t want young people in the South- West to get addicted to nicotine.”