NEW laws which allow electronic-cigarettes to be shown in TV adverts led to social media lighting up with opinions on the topic in the past week.

Companies promoting e-cigarettes have previously been banned from showing them on TV but Warrington CCG has welcomed the regulations to protect 'those who are susceptible to glamorised marketing campaigns'.

A spokesman added: "E-cigarettes are not a medicinal product and are not currently recognised as a quit smoking aid unless they are licensed as a medicine by the Medicines and Healthcare Regulatory Authority (MHRA).

"NHS Warrington CCG would encourage local people who are interested in giving up smoking to do so using the expert advice provided by local NHS organisations. Livewire provide this service in Warrington.

"It is highly likely that e-cigarettes are safer than tobacco cigarettes, but until we have more information we would not recommend them as a means of stopping smoking."

Dr Dan Bunstone, GP at Penketh Health Centre and CCG lead for long term conditions added a lot of research was still needed to discover the long term effects of using e-cigarettes.

He added: "By replacing a traditional cigarette with an e-cigarette you aren’t breaking the habit, the addiction remains, it is just to a different product.

"You are four times more likely to be successful in quitting smoking if you seek support from a stop smoking service and use licensed medication which is designed to help you quit such as patches, gum and other stop smoking medications."

But Chris Bowman, who runs Crystal Clear Vapours on Warrington Market and was the second person in the UK to sell e-cigs, refutes GP's claims and warns TV advertising could lead to more customers buying the product from sources which do not fully inform the customer of dangers.

He added: "You're going to get negative and positive press and regulations won't come in until 2016 so you get people selling them from car boot sales that won't go through all the do's and don'ts like we do with our customers.

"I strongly believe only specialist shops like us should be able to sell them so you can avoid things like people trying to charge them with an iPhone charger which has a much higher voltage.

"E-cigarettes are a smoking substitute that gets rid of 4,000 nasty chemicals and the smell and four million people use them now in the UK whereas when I started there was only 200,000."

Clr David Keane, executive board member for environment and public protection, said new regulations, which deemed adverts should not target under 18s or non-smokers and must not show tobacco 'in a positive light', were a 'step in the right direction'.

He added more needs to be done to prevent tobacco companies marketing their e-cigarette products in the same way and stronger rules were required to prevent marketing to children.

A spokesman for Livewire added support to include the cessation of electronic cigarettes had now been brought in.

For details of sessions, visit livewirewarrington.co.uk or call 0300 003 0818.