Eight school children in England have required hospital treatment after using electronic cigarettes, according to a Conservative MP who is calling on the government to ban disposable vapes.
Caroline Johnson, the MP for Sleaford and North Hykeham, raised concerns over children in her constituency feeling ill after vaping.
“A number of children in my constituency have collapsed after vaping and my understanding from the local school is that now eight children from one school in my constituency have required hospital treatment,” she told PA.
“Not all at the same time, at different times over the last few months, just immediately after they had been vaping. These are secondary school aged children,” Johnson added.
She highlighted the negative health effects of disposable vapes and their environmental impact.
“Public health messaging is clear: smoking is bad for you. E-cigarette use is possibly not as bad for you, but we cannot be certain of the long-term effects of the individual flavourings. The best option is neither to vape nor to smoke. It is therefore crucial that while vapes are used to encourage smokers to quit, we protect children and young people from being lured into a lifetime of addiction,” Johnson told parliamentarians in February.
Speaking about the effect of vaping on children, the MP said that teachers in her constituency shared that some pupils were “struggling to get through a double maths lesson because they need to go out and vape.”
“They are vaping in their school bathrooms in between lessons. Some of them are struggling with a whole night’s sleep because they’re waking up desperate to have a vape, and so the degree to which some of our children are getting addicted to these things is really very concerning,” Johnson added.
The vaping prevalence among young people was at 8.6 percent in 2022, compared with 4 percent the year before and 4.8 percent in 2020.
Johnson suggested that while vaping manufacturers insist their products are intended for adults, vapes come in a range of appealing colours and designs, affecting a far more “impressionable audience.”
“Some of the most popular flavours include bubble gum, cotton candy, and strawberry ice cream. Their price and disposability makes the habit easier to hide from parents and teachers, who are unlikely to approve,” Johnson told MPs.
Johnson also warned parliamentarians that vapes added to harmful waste build-up.
“Disposable vapes have become part of the national embarrassment that we see everywhere, every day, littering our streets, our parks and our rivers like confetti,” the MP said.
Johnson will lead a Westminster Hall debate on electronic cigarette use on Thursday.
Under UK law, it is illegal to sell electronic cigarettes, or devices intended to deliver nicotine, to anyone under the age of 18. The government has vowed to “close the loophole” that allows the vaping industry to give free samples of vapes to children in England.
In May, the government announced a review into banning the vaping industry selling “nicotine-free” vapes to under-18s.
“The marketing and the illegal sales of vapes to children is completely unacceptable and I will do everything in my power to end this practice for good,” said Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.
This is part of the government’s plan to meet its Smokefree 2030 target and tackle youth vaping.
