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Expressing concerns over growing use of e-cigarettes among children, the US Center for Disease Control and Prevention has warned exposure to ads that promote vaping.

Citing statistics from CDC, Fox News reports that the ad-spend on e-cigarettes increased from $ 6.4 million in 2011 to $ 115 million in 2014. The same period saw an increase in e-cigarette use from 1.5 % to 13.4 % among high school students. The CDC found that 7 in 10 children are exposed to e-cigarette ads.

"The same advertising tactics the tobacco industry used years ago to get kids addicted to nicotine are now being used to entice a new generation of young people to use e-cigarettes," said CDC Director Tom Frieden in a press release. "I hope all can agree that kids should not use e-cigarettes."

According to NBC News, studies in the past, including one from Harvard School of Public Health, found that e-cigarette deliver harmful chemicals including formaldehyde which is carcinogenic.

E-cigarettes are often marketed as a safer alternative to combustible tobacco given that they deliver nicotine vapors and have an aid to help smokers quit smoking. Nicotine has been shown to hamper brain development in children and teenagers.

CDC expressed concerns that e-cigarette use could lead to use of the tobacco even as it suggested measures including restricting sale of tobacco products to facilities inaccessible to children, restricting sale of such products in person by preventing online sales and mandating age verification when accessing e-cigarette vendor websites.