Electronic cigarettes, or e-cigarettes, were originally created to provide cigarette users with a cleaner form of nicotine.

However, in recent years, these and similar devices such as vapes have found a rapidly growing audience of users in teens and young adults who have never smoked before.

Professor Suchitra Krishnan-Sarin, an expert in youth tobacco use and addiction, was not surprised to see vaping catch on with teens — with sleek designs, thousands of fun flavours to choose from, and a highly customisable user experience, this new way of smoking makes nicotine all the more appealing and addicting to the smartphone generation.

As Professor Krishnan-Sarin, a professor of psychiatry at the Yale University School of Medicine, US, puts it: “While trying to solve one huge public health problem — cigarette smoking — we may have created another colossal one.”