Crackdown urged on ‘insidious’ marketing of vapes to children

The children’s commissioner has urged ministers to crack down on the “insidious” marketing of vapes to young people, which is leaving them so addicted to nicotine they cannot concentrate at school.

Rachel de Souza said the government would fail “a generation if we allow these highly addictive, and sometimes dangerous, products to become mainstream”.

Her comments are underpinned by research into the experiences of 3,500 young people across the UK, which found “deeply worrying” evidence that children feel under pressure to vape, with addictions preventing some from concentrating for whole lessons, while others are avoiding school toilets for fear of peer pressure to vape.

The findings have spurred De Souza to call for the government to ban disposable vapes, which are popular among children, and for regulation to mirror that of tobacco, including plain packaging and age of sale signage. She also called for a ban on nicotine-free vapes, which are seen as a gateway to vapes with nicotine.

“We urgently need stricter regulation of this ‘wild west’ market. It is insidious that these products are intentionally marketed and promoted to children, both online and offline. Many children who are addicted to vaping have never even smoked tobacco, with vaping acting as a gateway rather than a quitting strategy,” de Souza said.

The research found children and parents want more information about vaping’s harms and tighter regulation. De Souza said school leaders had been “horrified” to find that vapes confiscated from students contained “dangerously high levels of chemicals like nickel and lead”, exposure to which can affect the central nervous system and brain development.

While she welcomed the government’s recent move to close the loophole that allows companies to give free vaping samples to children and the announcement of a new illicit vape enforcement squad, she said stricter regulation was needed now, along with “swift and nonjudgmental health support” to children who are already addicted.

The Department of Health’s consultation on youth vaping, which closed on 6 June, should be “the catalyst for change that is so urgently needed”, de Souza urged. Ministers are considering “further steps” on vaping, which are understood to include banning colourful branding and flavours.

On Monday, the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health called for a ban on disposable vapes, which would bring the UK more in line with countries including Australia, which has made vaping prescription only, and New Zealand, which banned most disposable vapes this week and will no longer allow new vape shops near schools. Scotland, France, Germany and Ireland also have tougher rules.

De Souza’s call draws on data gathered from nearly 500,000 children as part of a wide-ranging survey looking into happiness and wellbeing in England. Children were asked what they thought would stop them from achieving what they wanted to when they grew up, to which many highlighted vaping. Their concerns focused on the lack of parental support to stop vaping, peer pressure, and the influence of social media.

said: “It is illegal to sell nicotine vapes to children and we are concerned about the recent rises in youth vaping – particularly because of the unknown long-term harms.

“We are taking bold action to crack down on youth vaping through the £3m illicit vapes enforcement squad to tackle underage sales to children. We also launched a call for evidence to identify opportunities to reduce the number of children accessing and using vape products.”