End this ‘appalling’ marketing of vapes to children, says Whitty
ToP health chief Sir Chris Whitty yesterday called for a clampdown on the ‘appalling’ marketing of vapes to children.
England’s chief medical officer told MPs there is ‘no doubt’ some firms are designing e-cigarettes to appeal to children.
This is despite the fact that it is illegal to sell vapes to under-18s.
Giving evidence to the Commons health and social care committee, he said officials must do ‘everything we can’ to reduce child vaping.
research last year found the proportion of children using e-cigarettes is on the rise, with many influenced by social media sites including TikTok.
newer disposable e- cigarettes are increasing in popularity – in part because they cost around £5 each and come in a wide range of colours and fruity flavours. The survey of children, carried out for Action on Smoking and
‘Need to be more serious about this’
Health, found the proportion of those aged 11 to 17 currently vaping jumped from 4 per cent in 2020 to 7 per cent in 2022. In 2013, just 3 per cent of children aged 11 to 15 had ever vaped, but this rose to 8 per cent in 2020 and 10 per cent in 2022.
Although it is illegal to sell e- cigarettes to under-18s, social media sites carry posts from teenagers showing vapes and discussing flavours such as pink lemonade, strawberry banana and mango. Yesterday Sir Chris was asked by Tory MP dr Caroline Johnson about vaping becoming a ‘fad’ among teenagers. She said vapes were ‘heavily marketed at children, which is developing into a whole generation of teenagers completely addicted to sucking little nicotine coloured pop things’.
Sir Chris, pictured inset, replied that existing there smokers was agreement should switch that to vapes because they are healthier than cigarettes. But he added: ‘I think everyone agrees that marketing vaping – an addictive product – with, as you imply, unknown consequences for developing minds, to children is utterly unacceptable.
‘Yet it is happening. There’s no doubt it’s happening because, although from a low base, the rates of vaping have doubled in the last couple of years among children. So that is an appalling situation.’ He said more must be done to reduce vaping among children, adding: ‘I think we need to be much more serious... Trying everything we can to reduce vaping in children, as well as smoking in children, is really important whilst trying what we can do to make sure that vaping is available for those for whom that is the route out of smoking.
‘So it’s getting that balance right. And there’s quite a lot of debate around the world about how to do this.’
He added: ‘disposable vapes... things like Elf Bar, are clearly the kinds of products which look as if they’re being marketed, in reality, at children. ‘And I think we should look very seriously at these products for which the child market appears to be the principal market and say “Why are we considering this to be a good thing to have?”.’ Earlier this month major retailers pulled sales of Elf Bar vapes after a Mail investigation found nicotine limits were too high. Last
September, experts at King’s College London called for a crackdown on the sale of vapes to children and said little is known about the long-term impact on health.
John dunne, of the uK Vaping Industry Association, stressed: ‘Marketing vaping products to children is clearly unsupportable.’ He said: ‘We have long called for a licensing of retailers and much more meaningful and stronger fines – up to £10,000 – for those who sell vapes to under18s.’ A department of Health spokesman said: ‘We are clear that vaping should only be used to help people quit smoking – vapes should not be used by people under 18 or non-smokers.’