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Adam is among a small but growing number of UK teenagers who vape as a fashionable and, UK health authorities say, potentially safer alternative to smoking cigarettes.

Parents on the online forum Mumsnet said they would prefer their children to vape than smoke and Public Health England, a government body, says that vaping is 95 per cent safer than smoking. But this claim is based on 2014 data and scientists are increasingly rejecting the advice.

In recent years, more than 20 countries have banned vaping while others, including Canada and Australia, have tightened regulations.