Children’s doctors are calling for an outright ban on disposable vapes to reduce their popularity among young people as the long-term impact on lungs, hearts and brains remains unknown.
The government should ban single-use disposable vapes, which can be bought for just £1.99 and are most popular with young people, the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health has said.
This would reduce their environmental impact and discourage children who have never smoked from taking up vaping and risking long-term addiction and lung damage.
Dr Mike McKean, the RCPH vice-president and a paediatric respiratory consultant, said the college had made a “very carefully considered call”, reflecting concerns from its members about the “epidemic” of child vaping, the limited research into the longer-term health impacts, and the small but growing numbers of children with respiratory problems.
“It took decades to understand relationship of cigarette smoking to cancer and respiratory illnesses – my worry is we could be sleepwalking into a similar situation here,” McKean said.
“If you know about lung development, you know that if you inhale potentially noxious, volatile substances there is a huge potential for an inflammatory reaction that could have a minor or a major effect. There is lots of evidence it causes significant coughing and breathlessness. We’re not seeing lots of highly damaged lungs yet, but there are cases reported where the inflammatory response is overwhelming and causes permanent scarring.”
He said that while he thought Australia’s approach, where vapes are only available on prescription, might overburden the NHS, England’s permissive approach was “out of step” with neighbouring countries, such as Scotland, France, Germany and Ireland. So far, England has banned free vape samples for under-18s and may prohibit colourful packaging and flavour names that target younger people.
Ministers had the power to “easily” ban disposable vapes, he said, and he hoped they would respond “as fast as possible” to submissions to the government’s call for evidence on youth vaping, which closes on 6 June, to avoid the problem getting kicked into the political long grass before the next general election. “If you’re 12 and starting to vape regularly we can’t wait for that 12-year-old to be 13 or 14, we need action now.”
He added he thought there was a “moral imperative” to prevent companies from profiting from long-term addictions by targeting children with colourful packaging and fruity flavours.
The ban would also reduce the environmental harm caused by e-cigarettes, which waste lithium needed for batteries to power electric cars and increase plastic waste, as 1.3 million vapes are thrown away every week in the UK.
The latest NHS Digital data shows that the number of young people vaping is rapidly growing to reach one in five 15-year-olds in 2021, and figures are expected to be significantly higher this year. Action on Smoking and Healthdata also shows that experimental use of e-cigarettes among 11-to-17-year-olds is up 50% on last year.
A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: “It is illegal to sell nicotine vapes to children and we are concerned about the recent rises in youth vaping – particularly because of the unknown long-term harms.
“We are taking bold action to crack down on youth vaping through the £3m illicit vapes enforcement squad to tackle underage sales to children. We have also launched a call for evidence to identify opportunities to reduce the number of children accessing and using vape products and explore where the government can go further.”
