Doctors flag risk of e-cigs for toddlers

Even a few drops of liquid from nicotine refills for e-cigarettes could make small children sick, doctors say, as they sound new warnings on the cartridges.

Doctors have issued a fresh warning that toddlers are at risk from e-cigarette nicotine refills, saying even a few drops could make a child very sick.

In a letter to the journal Archives of Disease in Childhood, physicians in Birmingham, central England, reported the case of a 30-month-old girl rushed to hospital after putting a refill cartridge to her mouth and starting to vomit.

She was discharged six hours later, with no further symptoms.

It was not clear how much, if any, of the liquid the girl had ingested before her mother intervened.

But the case was the latest to underline "the risk posed by nicotine liquid to children", said the experts, who called for "public education and legislation to improve the safety profile of e-liquid containers".

In April, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported a surge in calls to poison centres after people accidentally swallowed or inhaled nicotine from a refill cartridge, or spilled it on their skin or in their eyes.


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