Rapid uptake in England of underage vaping prompts health warnings

The number of teenagers regularly vaping has jumped to one in seven, according to a new survey of schools in northern England, fuelling further calls from government advisers and medics for popular flavoured e-cigarettes to be banned.

Fourteen per cent of children aged between 14 and 17-years-old said they used vapes, more than once a week at the end of March, up from just six per cent in spring 2020, according to Trading Standards North West.

The findings will add to pressure on ministers to clamp down on the sale of these products to teens, following the launch of a government consultation into underage use of e-cigarettes in response to a surge in their popularity.

Chinese-owned brands, such as Elf Bar and Lost Mary, have captured the zeitgeist among British teenagers, gaining traction via viral videos on social media platform TikTok, which have accrued nearly 2bn views.

Big tobacco conglomerates, including British American Tobacco, have also launched their own flavoured, single-use vapes.

One tobacco executive said the UK was in the throes of its own “Juul moment”, referring to the popular e-cigarette brand that sparked a “vaping epidemic” among US high school students.

More than two-thirds of the schoolchildren surveyed said they were using single-use vapes, with just less than half drawn to their sweet flavours, according to the survey, which gathered responses from more than 13,000 pupils in the north west of England.

Javed Khan, a former executive who led a landmark government review into smoking last year, said the “worryingly high” levels of underage use “tipped the balance conclusively” in favour of a ban.

“If I knew then what we know now, I would have been stronger in calling for an outright ban,” said Khan, who was the chief executive of child protection charity Barnardo’s between 2014-21.

As part of the consultation’s call for evidence, which concludes in early June, the government is reviewing the effect of flavours, bright-coloured packaging and social media marketing on vape usage among young people.

The latest review could usher in the first tightening of regulation around e-cigarettes in England, where the government has historically championed vapes as a smoking cessation aid unlike health authorities in the US.

On top of the consultation, the government also announced it would hand out vaping starter kits to one in five adult smokers last week as part of its “smoke-free” drive.

Tom Bennett, government behaviour adviser, said vapes had become “the new avenue for children to rebel” as cigarette smoking has declined, and that teens were attracted to their wide array of flavours, from green gummy bear to cherry cola.

Smoking rates stood at 7 per cent among schoolchildren in north-west England, an all-time low, according to the Trading Standards survey.

Research suggests that vaping is significantly less harmful than smoking, but nicotine usage in young people has been associated with mood and attention disorders.

Jonathan Grigg, chair of the European Respiratory Society’s tobacco control committee, said vapes threatened “to hook a generation of kids on to nicotine” and lead to them smoking as adults, which he called a “disastrous phenomenon”.

But some public health experts and tobacco industry figures warned against an outright ban on flavoured vapes. John Dunne, chief executive of the UK Vaping Industry Association, the trade body, blamed “rogue retailers” for giving access to children.

“It’s not the products who are causing these issues, it’s how the young people are getting these products,” said Dunne. The government also announced an extra £3mn in funding for trading standards to crack down on shops selling to children.

Dunne pointed to research commissioned by the UKVIA that suggests the draw of flavours is an important tool in getting adult smokers to switch to vaping.

Deborah Arnott, chief executive of health charity Action on Smoking and Health, agreed that an outright ban on flavours would be counterproductive. Instead, ASH wants the government to put an excise tax of £4 on disposable vapes to make them less affordable.

Kingsley Wheaton, chief growth officer at British American Tobacco, which launched its disposable vape Vuse Go last year, stressed the product helped adult smokers to quit, arguing it was “an additional choice in a convenient format”.

In the year to early April, disposable vapes generated nearly £1bn in sales across the UK, according to Nielsen IQ data. Elf Bar and Lost Mary — which are owned by Shenzhen-based vaping company Heaven Gifts International — accounted for about three-quarters of sales.

The Department of Health and Social Care did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Heaven Gifts International declined to comment.