CONCERNS have been raised that e-cigarettes and “vaping” are a gateway to smoking tobacco for young people in Oldham.

A meeting of the performance and value for money select committee at the Civic Centre was discussing a report which looked at the performance in getting youngsters to quit smoking.

Recent data produced by Public Health England showed that Oldham’s smoking prevalence has reduced 18.8pc in 2016 to 16.6 pc in 2017.

However there has been a decline in the numbers of people accessing quitting help services, which is also reflected nationally.

Crompton Councillor Diane Williamson said: “As a former smoker myself I’m really pleased that there are all sorts of ways to give up smoking. My concern is about the e-cigs.

“That’s a way where older people seem to want to give up and do it that way, but we don’t know what harm that’s doing.

“I have heard young people saying that they started on e-cigs and then went on to proper cigarettes so that is a concern for me that it’s not enough.”

Cllr Jean Stretton, who represents Hollinwood, added: “I think there’s also the issue of the flavours that you suspect are deliberately targeted at children.”

Dr Charlotte Stevenson, consultant in public health at Oldham Clinical Commissioning Group replied that e-cigarettes are currently the subject of a “major national debate”.

“There’s two parts to e-cigarettes, there is taking people who are using very harmful cigarettes onto something that we believe, given the research that we have, to be 95 per cent less harmful,” she said.

“However they are much more harmful than not smoking anything at all.

“So there is emerging evidence to say that young people are starting vaping having never smoked or had the desire to smoke and using that.

“That’s never been the point of nicotine replacement, which is what e-cigarettes are for.”

She added: “It’s difficult with the messages to say they are much less harmful than cigarettes but much more harmful than nothing.

“We want people who are smoking to vape and then quit if that’s the route they choose to take. But we don’t want people to see vaping as a healthy option.”

In Oldham there has been a small increase in the numbers of pregnant women who are still smoking at the time of delivery, which Shirley Goodhew, locum consultant in public health, told members was a key target group to encourage to stop smoking.

Ms Goodhew said: “Generally Oldham has a really good quit rate, generally people who do access smoking cessation services do go on to have a successful quit.”

Councillors were told that the number of people who quit smoking are highest in the most deprived areas of the borough.

“Which is positive for us in terms of our targeted efforts,” Ms Goodhew added.

“Although the prevalence looks like it’s going down, there is lots more we can do around smoking on a policy side on referral pathways, primary and secondary care and health bodies and ensuring that we have a targeted offer.”