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Officials have issued an urgent warning about the "serious risks" of electronic cigarettes, adding fuel to a growing public health crisis around the safety of "vaping".

A Californian health chief has claimed that anyone who uses liquid tobacco is exposing themselves to 10 known carcinogens.

He produced a report which found that e-cigs are a "community heath threat".

Any teenager who uses an e-cig faces a risk of harming their BRAIN development, claimed Dr. Ron Chapman, director of the California Department of Public Health.

“E-cigarettes contain nicotine and other harmful chemicals, and the nicotine in them is as addictive as the nicotine in cigarettes," said Dr Chapman.

“There is a lot of misinformation about e-cigarettes. That is why, as the state’s health officer, I am advising Californians to avoid the use of e-cigarettes and keep them away from children of all ages.”

(Image: Getty)

This warning came after other researchers claimed the vapour from e-cigs was packed full of formaldehyde, which is know to cause lethal cancer.

Last week, the New England Journal of Medicine published research which said e-cigs could be more dangerous than smoking.

Writing in the journal, researchers from Portland State University suggested that e-cigs could potentially pump out "five to 15 times" more formaldehyde than normal cigarettes.

Even though previous research has produced similar results, this study has been criticised by vape-advocates, who said the results were unreliable.

A Greek researcher called Dr Konstantinos Farsalinos claimed the study involved turning up the e-cig to such a high temperature that humans would not be able to inhale the vapour.

Although e-cigs are commonly regarded as being safer than ordinary cigarettes, they have been blamed for causing house fires and slammed as an ineffective way of helping people quit smoking.

The World Health Organisation called for them to be banned from indoor use as they pose a risk to children and even unborn foetuses.