A VAPING shop owner in Worcester insists it would be “madness” to ban the e-cigarettes that have improved the life of his customers.

It comes on the back of news that vaping could soon be banned in the UK under recommendations set out by the World Health Organisation (WHO).

READ MORE: Vaping to be banned in UK?

Their report says users being able to add their own ingredients could make vaping more harmful.

The prospect of a ban, which would affect around 2.4million Britons, is set to be discussed at a conference in Glasgow later this year despite UK public health officials saying vaping is 97 per cent after than smoking cigarettes.

But Andrew Connellan, who runs Connect2Vapes in Broad Street, Worcester, warned health officials should not throw out the baby with the bath water when it comes to tackling issues such as cheaper substitutes for branded products.

“My view is the same as that of the NHS,” said Mr Connellan.

“They are more than 90 per cent better than cigarettes and we have seen evidence of that amongst our customers.

“Some of them who had to walk slowly can now run, some who used to struggle to get up the stairs now can having made the switch.

“We were the first to retail them in Worcester and we have been able to see the massive benefits for the customers over a period of time and they have stayed loyal to us for that reason.

“It would be madness to ban them. It would only be sensible if cigarettes had never done any harm but we know what they do to people.”

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Mr Connellan acknowledged the potential harm from rogue liquids but argued current regulation of the industry is sufficient.

“It is like alcohol. If you drink dodgy alcohol you can go blind but you wouldn’t ban people from pubs,” he added.

“We are all liable to do it, if people are skint they will buy vaping liquids from people on Facebook.

“There are banned ingredients that don’t go into our liquids and people don’t know what is going into the cheaper versions but that is no reason to ban e-cigarettes.

“You should always keep regulation out of anything you don’t need to regulate.

“It is a case of just making people more aware. We try to tell people when they come into the shop, some think we are being selfish because we want them to buy from us but they are better to stick to officially branded products and we do give that advice to help people.

“The liquids are becoming much cheaper as well so the difference isn’t that much anymore.

“The industry is already regulated through the TPD (Tobacco Products Directive) and there is such a demand because people know what cigarettes do to their health.

“I think they tried to crush the industry with the TPD regulations because they wanted people to be paying the tax on cigarettes again but it didn’t work in this country with the tax on cigarettes being so high.

“Unless they ban e-cigarettes – which would be absolutely disgraceful – I don’t think it will affect the industry because it is so resilient now.”