Should parents be worried about teenage vaping?
Sweet flavours and social media influencers are making e-cigarettes ‘cool’, says Liat Hughes Joshi
Just as parents were sighing with relief that cigarettes have fallen out of fashion – with only 7 per cent of 11 to 15-year-olds smoking tobacco, compared with 16 per cent a decade ago – along comes a new trend to worry about: vaping. A recent Telegraph investigation found Instagram was promoting vape products to children as young as 13, using cartoons. While last week, a teaching body expressed concern about rising e-cigarette use among teens, thanks in part to celebrities and “influencers” posting videos of vaping on social media.
“Children are not smoking. They are vaping instead,” said Shaun Fenton, chairman of the Headmasters’ and Headmistresses’ Conference. “They see online personalities blowing smoke rings, which were cool in the Forties and are cool again.”
Now the world’s leading vaping brand is planning a significant UK expansion, including the marketing of fruit flavours that critics have said are designed to appeal to teenagers.
Juul, which has been stocked in Boots, Sainsbury’s and specialist e-cigarette stores since last July, has confirmed it intends to offer its products in around 55,000 outlets.
It will sell flavours such as apple, mango and berries more widely, despite pulling them from US stores after reports they were luring young people into the habit.
The company says none of its products are marketed at children and that it does not pay social influencers to promote them.
It might be illegal to sell e-cigarettes – originally designed to wean people off tobacco addiction – to under 18s, but figures from Public Health England show the proportion of 11 to 18-year-olds using them has doubled in the past five years, with almost one in six having tried one.
There is certainly no shortage of worried parents on the Whatsapp group for my son’s year at an independent school in London. Some report children get their e-cigarettes from older siblings; I heard about an
entrepreneurial 13-year-old renting out his brother’s to other pupils.
And some retailers remain willing to sell to minors, flouting the law. One mother from Lancashire says her son, now 16, has been vaping since he was 14. “There was a bargain shop on the way to school which used to sell vape
‘In my day, it was drinking or sex that made your mark with peers. Now it’s this’
liquid to the kids, including mine. I reported it to Trading Standards but they now buy online.”
She believes the enticing flavours of vape liquids – with names such as “cola bottles” and “marshmallow cookies” – draw young people in: “I honestly think they’re the alcopops of this generation.”
Another London mother says her daughter, 14, has shown her photos on Instagram of her friends vaping at parties. “In my day it was drinking, cigarettes or sex that made your mark with your peers. Now it’s this.”
Most parents’ primary concern is over the health risks – especially as their child’s defence is likely to be along the lines of “it’s not as bad as smoking”.
Dr Abby Hunter, from the University of Nottingham’s Centre for Tobacco and Alcohol Studies, says vaping is indeed “95 per cent safer than smoking”. But while vapes don’t involve tobacco, tar or smoke, they do usually contain lower levels of nicotine.
“It is not harmless,” says Prof Mark Conner, a psychologist at the University of Leeds, who led a recent study on vaping and adolescents. “There is recurring concern about nicotine and brain development.”
Another worry is that vaping will act as a gateway to tobacco. “Studies have shown you’re three to five times more likely to go on to smoke cigarettes if you’ve vaped as an adolescent,” says Prof Conner. However, it’s not clear whether this group would have gone on to smoke anyway.
Janey Downshire, a counsellor who specialises in teenagers, advises parents are unlikely to find it easy to get a vaping teen to give up. “It’s better to tell them where you stand and any rules, such as they are not to do it at home, that you are not happy about it and provide facts and information.”
A spokesman for Juul said: “Since launching in the UK last year, we have implemented strict policies to prevent anyone underage accessing our product, exceeding legal requirements.”