It’s widely understood by now that wielding a vape is a double-edged sword. Sure, you say goodbye to the harmful tar and carbon monoxide when you stub out your last cigarette, but once you pick up that vape, you never put it down.
Vaping’s lack of lingering smell and fire risk means that many users vape freely wherever they choose. It starts in the home, then graduates to more explicitly forbidden locations as a vaper grows in confidence. For every untriggered fire alarm, a vaper becomes increasingly emboldened. You no longer think, ‘Where shouldn’t I vape?’ but instead ‘Where couldn’t I vape?’
But there’s one group that is far more likely to offend than others: Gen Z.
Blame their overall insouciance and their widespread affection for e-cigarettes. According to ONS figures from last year, 15.8 per cent of 18 to 24-year-olds are vaping daily or occasionally, compared to 7 per cent in 2020. Other figures estimate the total to be even higher, with one UCL study claiming as many as 29 per cent of 18 to 24-year-olds currently vape.
I know firsthand how much my generation sees vapes as pacifiers, and secret vaping as an opportunity to enter the Guinness Book of World Records. I have friends who have vaped in airplane toilets (yes, it does set off the alarm, no, don’t attempt it), in cars, at funerals, on Tube platforms, on club dancefloors, and friends who regularly vape in their office loos. Just last week, I saw a bunch of schoolchildren vaping on a London bus, any sense of care or caution thrown to the blueberry-scented wind. My colleague even had a vaper behind her in the security queue at the airport.
It’s starting to piss people off. According to data from HAYPP, there has been a 188 per cent increase in vaping complaints on public transport, with reports almost tripling between 2022 and 2023. Meanwhile, a YouGov survey into public nuisances found that 50 per cent of Britons are bothered a “great deal” or a “fair amount” by people vaping anywhere, let alone in forbidden spaces.
Older people are particularly bothered, with this figure rising to 55 per cent when only polling those aged 65 and older. Furthermore, a separate YouGov study found that 65-year-olds are particularly likely to want to ban vaping products entirely, with 32 per cent of the age group in favour of the move.
So, why do Gen Z have such a laissez-faire attitude towards puffing? Part of it is simply youth: they are the youngest sibling of all adult generations, and so like all youngest siblings (and young adult generations), they’re pushing their luck.
But part of it is specific to Gen Z and Gen Z alone. We’re an especially ungovernable and unpredictable generation. Just look at Gen Z’s attitude towards work: we employ an unofficial work-to-rule mentality due to the cost of living crisis and lack of financial incentives. We don’t respect traditional workplace dress codes or etiquette, and we have almost always lived a luxurious hybrid working life of office plus WFH. Of course we’re going to vape in the bloody toilets.
Plus, on a more habitual level, we’re statistically more likely to vape, but also less likely to smoke than other generations, with only 9.8 per cent of 18 to 24-year-olds smoking in 2023, down from 25.7 per cent in 2011 (as per ONS figures). This means that many Gen Zs have never learned smoking etiquette: it’s not ingrained in them to go outside for their nicotine hits, so they just... don’t.
But at what cost? Even if vaping is recommended over smoking by the NHS, it’s still harmful and addictive. Vaping can cause breathing problems, organ damage, addiction and a whole host of other conditions. Just last week, British actress Lily James complained about the impact of sugary disposable vapes on her teeth, explaining how she had to get her first filling due to her fondness for the sweet stuff.
Plus, Gen Z like ‘em strong. Real strong. Last year, a report found that the use of the highest strength (20mg/ml) vapes among 18- to 24-year-olds had jumped from 3.9 per cent to 53 per cent in three years. That kind of vape is the equivalent of one to two whole packs of cigarettes, depending on the brand and cut.
So yes, Gen Z are vaping wherever they want, and everyone is quickly losing patience. But I wouldn’t be so surprised, if I were you. It’s in our nature to flout the rules and demand a level of comfort that older generations never even imagined. But if it’s any consolation, it looks like we’re going to learn our lesson the hard way eventually.
