The World Health Organization recommended countries adopt a raft of tighter regulations over the sale and use of e-cigarettes Tuesday, including a ban on sales to minors, a ban on “vaping” indoors and tighter controls over advertising and flavored products.

The United Nations agency released a report on Tuesday that acknowledged both the “promise and threat” of the e-cigarette market, Reuters reports. The authors cast doubt on e-cigarette makers’ claims that the devices could help smokers kick the habit. Until those claims had been substantiated by a stronger body of scientific evidence, the U.N. health agency recommended that countries adopt regulations that would “minimize content and emissions of toxicants.”

Suggested regulations include restrictions on advertisements promoting e-cigarettes as a healthy alternative to smoking, prohibitions on sales to minors and sweetened flavors that might appeal to minors and a ban on using the devices indoors. The Food and Drug Administration proposed similar restrictions on sales to minors and advertising of e-cigarettes in April, but stopped short of banning television advertising or sweetened flavors.

The report comes amid a widening divide in the scientific community as to whether e-cigarettes constitute a help or a hindrance in the battle to stop people smoking. A group of 53 scientists signed an open letter to the WHO earlier this year urging officials to resist any measures that might suppress sales of e-cigarettes, calling them “part of the solution” in the fight against smoking.

[Reuters]

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