E-cigarettes are being marketed as ‘edgy lifestyle devices’ which could encourage people to use them for too long, the deputy chief executive of the NHS health watchdog has warned.

Speaking at the Science and Technology committee, Professor Gillian Leng, of the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (Nice) said the long term health risks of vaping were still unknown.

Prof Leng, said that while it was safe to use e-cigarettes as a quitting aid, there were questions about whether they should be marketed as a ‘lifestyle choice.’

“I think that is the distinction between using e-cigarettes as a quitting aid, which you clearly can do,” she told MPs.

“The question is whether it becomes a long-term lifestyle choice. They are being marketed as an interesting, exciting, edgy product that might encourage people to use them in the longer term.

“The risk is that we don't know what the long-term impact of using e-cigarettes is because they are new products and we really need to gather that information.

“They are 95 per cent safer than cigarettes but there is five per cent that we don't know about."