RAWALPINDI, Sept 19: The World Health Organisation (WHO) on Friday said that contrary to claims by advertisers, the electronic cigarette – a battery-powered product usually made of stainless steel and resembling a real cigarette – has not been proven a safe or legitimate nicotine replacement therapy for smokers trying to quit.

Marketers have claimed that the product helps smokers break their addictions to tobacco with some even going so far as to imply that WHO views it as a legitimate nicotine replacement therapy like nicotine gum, lozenges and patches.

A WHO report said the users puff on the electronic cigarette as they would a real one but they do not light it, and it produces no smoke. Rather, the product, which has a chamber for storing liquid nicotine in various concentrations, produces a fine, heated mist, which is absorbed into the lungs.

The electronic cigarette is sold in China, where it was developed in 2004 and in a number of other countries including Brazil, Canada, Finland, Israel, Lebanon, the Netherlands, Sweden, Turkey and the United Kingdom.

WHO said it has no evidence that the product helps people quite smoking, adding it knows of no studies showing that it is a safe and effective nicotine replacement therapy. The only way to know if the product works is to test it.

“WHO has no scientific evidence to confirm the product’s safety and efficacy. Its marketers should immediately remove from their websites and other informational materials any suggestion that WHO considers it to be a safe and effective smoking cessation aid.”