The number of teenagers who regularly vape has jumped to one in seven, according to a new survey of schools in northern England, prompting further calls from government advisers and doctors to ban popular flavors.
The number of teenagers who regularly vape has jumped to one in seven, according to a new survey of schools in northern England, prompting further calls from government advisers and doctors to ban popular flavors.
According to Trading Standards North West, 14% of children ages 14 to 17 said they vaped more than once a week at the end of March, up from 6% in spring 2020.
The findings will add to pressure on ministers to ban sales of the products to teenagers after the government launched a consultation on underage use of e-cigarettes in response to a surge in their popularity.
Chinese private labels such as Elf Bar and Lost Mary have captured the zeitgeist of British teens, gaining traction through viral videos on social media platform TikTok, which have reached Nearly 2 billion times.
Big tobacco groups including British American Tobacco have also launched their own flavored disposable e-cigarettes.
Britain is in the throes of its own Juul moment, a tobacco executive says, referring to the popular e-cigarette brand that sparked a vaping epidemic among US high school students.
The survey, which gathered responses from more than 13,000 pupils in North West England, found that more than two-thirds of schoolchildren who vaped said they were using disposable e-cigarettes, and less than half were attracted by the sweet taste of e-cigarettes.
Javed Khan, a former executive who led the government's landmark review of smoking last year, said worryingly high rates of underage use eventually tipped the balance in favor of a ban on flavored disposable e-cigarettes.
"If I knew then what we know now, I would have called for an outright ban even more strongly," said Khan, who was chief executive of child protection charity Barnardo's from 2014-21.
The government is examining the impact of flavors, bright packaging and social media marketing on young people's use of e-cigarettes as part of a consultation on the evidence, which is due to close in early June.
The latest review could lead to the first tightening of regulations on e-cigarettes in the UK, which, unlike US health authorities, has historically supported vaping as a smoking cessation aid.
As well as the advice, the government announced last week that it would distribute e-cigarette starter kits to one in five adult smokers as part of its smoke-free campaign.
Tom Bennett, the government's school behavior adviser, said vaping had become a new way for children to rebel as smoking fell, and teenagers were drawn to flavors ranging from green gummy bears to to Cherry Coke.
Smoking rates among schoolchildren in North West England are at a record low of 7%, according to a Trading Standards survey.
Research has shown that vaping is far less harmful than smoking, but nicotine use among young people has been linked to mood and attention disorders.
Jonathan Grigg, chair of the Tobacco Control Committee of the European Respiratory Society, said e-cigarettes threatened to hook a generation of children on nicotine and lead them to smoking as adults, a phenomenon he called a catastrophe.
But some public health experts and tobacco industry figures have warned against an outright ban on flavored e-cigarettes. John Dunne, chief executive of trade body the British Vaping Industry Association, has accused rogue retailers of exposing children to vaping.
"It's not the products that are causing these problems, it's the way young people are getting them," Dunn said. The government has also announced an extra £3m for trading standards to crack down on shops selling to children.
Dunn pointed to research commissioned by UKVIA showing that flavor appeal is an important tool in getting adult smokers to switch to vaping.
Deborah Arnott, chief executive of the health charity Action on Smoking and Health, agrees that an outright ban on flavorings would be counterproductive. Instead, the ASH wants the government to introduce a £4 excise tax on disposable e-cigarettes to reduce affordability for younger users.
British American Tobacco's chief growth officer Kingsley Wheaton, who launched the Vuse Go, a disposable e-cigarette last year, highlighted the product as helping adult smokers quit smoking, saying it was an additional option in a convenient form.
Disposable e-cigarettes generated almost £1bn in sales in the UK in the year to early April, according to Nielsen IQ. Elf Bar and Lost Mary, owned by Shenzhen-based e-cigarette company Heaven Gifts International, account for about three-quarters of sales.
The Ministry of Health and Social Care did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Heaven Gifts International declined to comment.
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