About 650,000 smokers have turned to electronic cigarettes, or e-cigarettes, to try and curb their addictions. E-cigarettes produce vapor to simulate smoking. The devices consist of a battery, a reservoir that holds a liquid solution and an atomizer which vaporizes the liquid. Most of the solutions contain nicotine in varying concentrations, and once vaporized the nicotine enters the bloodstream through the lungs.

But the Italian Health Ministry issued a Dec. 30 report in which is warned the products are not “totally innocuous.” The report called the devices a “fashion gadget” that should not be used by young people as doing so could lead to smoking actual cigarettes.

“We have to have a prudent approach towards this product as we know little about its worth in stopping people smoking or how toxic it is,” Roberta Pacifici, director of Italy Observatory on Smoking, Alcohol and Drug Use at the National Health Institute, told the Italian News Agency ANSA.

Still, Pacifici admitted the products generally contain lower levels of nicotine than actual cigarettes, which also produce more than 400 substances of carcinogenic and toxic nature, and may be used as a method of overcoming a smoking habit.

“Should its efficacy as a means to curb smoking be proven it should still be treated like all the other substitutive nicotine products like nicotine gum and band aids…as a medical device,” Pacifici told Italy’s La Republica.

[Image via Shutterstock]