The US surgeon general has said e-cigarettes pose an emerging health threat to young people.

In a report released on Thursday, Vivek Murthy acknowledged a need for more research into the health effects of vaping, but said e-cigarettes were not harmless and too many teenagers were using them.

“My concern is e-cigarettes have the potential to create a whole new generation of kids who are addicted to nicotine,” he said. “If that leads to the use of other tobacco-related products, then we are going to be moving backward instead of forward.”

Battery-powered e-cigarettes turn liquid nicotine into an inhalable vapour without the harmful tar generated by regular cigarettes. Vaping was first promoted as a safer option for current smokers. There is no scientific consensus on the risks or advantages of vaping, including how it affects the likelihood of someone either picking up regular tobacco products or kicking the habit.

Murthy said nicotine was bad for a developing brain no matter how it was consumed. “Your kids are not an experiment,” he said in a public service announcement being released with the report, which says e-cigarettes are the most commonly used tobacco-related product among young people in the US

The US Food and Drug Administration this year issued new rules that, for the first time, require makers of nicotine-emitting devices to begin submitting their ingredients for regulators to review. The vaping industry argues that the regulations will wipe out small companies in favour of more harmful products, and are likely to lobby the incoming Trump administration to undo the rules.