We are sleepwalking into a health disaster

E-cigarettes lure kids into smoking as tobaccco firms watch, summit is told

- DAN VEVERS

SCOTLAND risks "sleepwalking into a public health disaster" for our young people if we don't ban disposable vapes now, a top kids' health expert has said.

Dr Jonathan Coutts, consultant paediatrician at Glasgow's Royal Hospital for Children, said that despite assumptions e-cigs are safer than smoking, there's not much evidence to back that up.

And he warned the explosion among kids was being exacerbated by unscrupulous retailers.

Dr Coutts was speaking at a roundtable discussion hosted by Green MSP Gillian Mackay - who has championed the Record's campaign to ban the disposables.