Doctors and legal experts say children in the UK are being sold dangerous and unregulated vaping products that contain high levels of nicotine. UK Trading standards say the market is being flooded with unsafe vapes targeted to children.
Discussed on BBC Radio 5live, Teachers say vaping is a rising problem in UK schools as children are attracted to the colourful sweet-tasting devices. While selling vapes to children under 18 is illegal, and vapes containing nicotine must be registered, trading standards have found shops are selling the devices and liquids to children.
Marketed as an alternative to smoking, vapes are electric devices which vaporise nicotine to be inhaled to mimic cigarettes. They come in a variety of flavours, ones especially appealing to children. Such flavours include cola, bubblegum, pink lemonade and strawberry.
According to the BBC, there are now hundreds of complaints of vapes being sold to children every month and a recent survey found a third of 16 and 17 year olds have tried vaping, reports Wales Online.
According to health charity ASH, 14 per cent of 16 and 17 year olds and 7 per cent of 11 to 17 year olds are now regular vapers.
The radio station joined trading standards officers in Newcastle carrying out checks on shops and found two out of the 10 shops were willing to sell vaping products illegally to girls aged 15 and 17.
The BBC says large numbers of vapes that are not designed for the UK market are being smuggled into the country.
Helen Donegan, senior trading standards officer with Leicestershire County Council, told the BBC 8,000 illegal vapes had been found at one premises alone. She said: "There's no way of knowing what's in them. They are making them extremely attractive to young people - but they could be inhaling a banned substance."
A survey of 3,000 teachers found half have caught a pupil vaping in school in the last year, some as young as 11. There are calls to increase the fine for selling vapes to children to £10,000 - as well as calls for a ban on social media advertising of vapes and for plain packaging similar to the way cigarettes are sold.
