Social media influencers could be banned from promoting vaping to teenagers following a sharp rise in videos on TikTok and Instagram.
Ministers are gathering evidence to see how teen vaping can be stamped out after increasingly concerns that young people are getting hooked on nicotine through the products.
A ban on fruit flavouring and packaging likely to appeal to children is already being considered.
TikTok does not allow adverts promoting vapes or other tobacco products on its platform but concerns are mounting about the widespread use of e-cigarettes among influencers.
Professor Andrew Bush, from Imperial College London's National Heart and Lung Institute, urged ministers to press forward with a ban on colourful, appealing packaging of vapes.
He also encouraged them to look into how the devices are promoted on social media.
Prof Bush told the Mirror it was “worrying” that children were being advertised vapes on social media by people who have huge influence on them.
“I don’t remember nicotine gum ever being featured in attractive adverts with a beautiful woman using it.
“It is the industry who are funding these people or so-called influencers, likely giving them free vapes. They all know tobacco is on its way out and want to make vaping the next big thing,” he said.
It comes after a Mirror investigation revealed today that shops are illegally selling nicotine vapes to children.
A 13-year-old undercover shopper was able to buy a haul of vapes – containing as much nicotine as is found in 100 cigarettes – in just one day.
Health minister Neil O’Brien said last week the Government was “opening a specific call for evidence on youth vaping”.
The Tory MP said: “This will explore a range of issues including how we ensure regulatory compliance, look at the appearance and characteristics of vapes, about their marketing and promotion of vapes, and the role of social media, which is crucial.
“It will also seek to better understand the vape market, looking at issues such as the price of low cost products and disposables.”
Tory MP Caroline Johnson, who is also a consultant paediatrician, recently told the Times that ministers need to push ahead with “a massively multipronged attack on teen vaping” that brought the rules for advertising into line with those for smoking.
“Influencers on social media are also a contributing problem that we need to pay close attention to — although designing effective regulation to stop this form of marketing will need to strike the correct balance,” she said.
There is evidence of a worrying rise in underage vaping, with rates doubling last year according to ASH, who found that 7% of 11- to 17-year-olds surveyed were “current users” in 2022, up from 3.3% the year before.
There is also concern about the rise of illegal sized black market vapes, with the Chartered Trading Standards Institute warning that around one in three vape products on shelves break UK laws.
The illegal vapes our undercover child bought contained five times as much nicotine as the legal ones for just twice the price.
Organised crime gangs are believed to be smuggling £500million worth of illegal vapes into the UK a year. They are mostly made in China and designed for markets where bigger and stronger vapes are legal, such as the US.
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