Vaping: schools forced to change smoke detectors due to children vaping in school toilets

Smoke detectors and heat sensors are being set off during lessons and exams as children vape in schools, MPs have heard. This has led to some schools changing their detectors and headteachers being forced to monitor toilets due to the number of children using e-cigarettes.

The Health and Social Care Committee was told about vaping rates in schools, and in evidence to the MPs’ inquiry on youth vaping, Laranya Caslin, headteacher at St George’s Academy in Sleaford, Lincolnshire, which teaches children aged 11 to 18, told of her problems in tackling youth vaping. 

Mrs Caslin told MPs: “We have a significant proportion of students vaping and they’re vaping regularly and, in some cases, making excuses to leave lessons to go to the toilet to vape.

“I think we have seen across our catchment area a significant increase (in vaping). My head student team would estimate the proportion to be around 25% of students at the school (who) are vaping and the local police – who we work really closely with – would echo that from their experience in the market square around the town.

She said pre-pandemic, vaping was not a big issue at school. However, now Mrs Caslin says students vaping in the toilets have led to the fire alarm being set off, which is interrupting learning. 

She said: “I had two toilets that I knew students were vaping in that I was monitoring really closely and I became really concerned about interruptions to the exam season. So I had to change smoke sensors to heat sensors really quickly to prevent us being in and out while students were sitting GCSEs and A levels, and so the ramifications are quite broad in terms of an education setting.”

She said there were vape sensors on the market but they were “not cheap” and suggested schools should be given access to specific grants so they could buy them for their buildings.

Data from NHS Digital revealed the number of young people vaping increased, with 9% of secondary school pupils aged 11 to 15 currently - either regularly or occasionally - using e-cigarettes in 2021. This was an increase from 6% in 2018.

A 2022 Action on Smoking and Health survey found a similar trend. The survey showed a sharp increase in vaping among 11 to 17 year olds, from 4% in 2020 - before the first coronavirus lockdown - to 7% in 2022.

When asked about youngsters’ motivation to vape, Mrs Caslin said there was a perception it was “cool” and there is an element of peer pressure. However, this has also led to an addiction, which has seen some students leave the classroom to "top up" their nicotine levels. She says that vapes, which have flavours such as 'unicorn milk', have increased their appeal to pre-teens. Her views have been echoed by other teachers, who have said they have to take action to stop vaping on their premises, including in toilets.

Recently, 18 used vapes confiscated from students at Baxter College in Kidderminster, were tested in a laboratory and found that "highlighter vapes" - neon-bright devices designed to look like highlighter pens - contained more than double the safe exposure level of lead, nearly seven times the safe exposure level of chromium, and almost 10 times the safe exposure level of nickel, the BBC reported. The lab tests also showed the metals were not just coming from the heating element, but were in the e-liquid itself. 

Dr Helen Stewart, officer for health improvement at the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health (RCPCH), thought the college would support a ban on vaping in public places. When asked if the RCPCH would “support vaping being included in the legislation that bans tobacco smoking in public areas, like clubs, pubs, bars, those sort of places?”, she replied: “I think that’s something we definitely would support.

“We know that the effects are passive as well as from active smoking, so that’s definitely something that we would support.”

The RCPCH has already said it wants to see a ban on disposable vapes, which are popular with children. MPs also questioned John Dunne, director general of the UK Vaping Industry Association, and Marcus Saxton, chairman of the Independent British Vape Trade Association.

In a sometimes tense exchange with MPs, the pair denied their members were promoting flavours to children. Mr Dunne said “(e-cigarettes) have been around for well over 15 years, they are the most successful way that adults quit smoking here in the UK”, adding that “flavours are extremely important to adults, that’s one of the reasons vaping is so successful”.

He said there should be greater powers for authorities like the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) to be “given the powers to look at product design and packaging before they approve any products”.

He added: “The industry is not here to sell to children. The industry is not here to hide from the fact that some rogue retailers and distributors are bringing in products that are unsuitable.”

On flavours, Mr Sexton added that there were some products coming in that should be targeted and people prosecuted under existing regulation. Having said that, the role of flavours – if any of you have been a smoker – is absolutely critical to enabling a successful quit attempt,” he added.

The pair also denied the industry was trying to hook a new generation of youngsters on nicotine.

NationalWorld has previously reported how the rapid rise in popularity of e-cigarettes in recent years has yet to be addressed through comprehensive legislation, leaving aspects of the market unregulated. While the industry has been supportive of some calls to introduce further regulations, lobbyists are thought to be pushing for a lighter touch.

On 30 May, the government announced a crackdown on vape marketing targeted at children - including closing a loophole allowing retailers to give free vape samples to children. There will also be a review into banning retailers from selling “nicotine free” vapes to under 18s, plus a review of the rules on issuing fines to shops that illegally sell vapes to children.

Politico reported earlier this year that the government was considering plans to tax vaping products and impose stricter regulation on packaging, marketing and flavours, in response to an independent report on making England smoke-free by 2030. There has been no suggestion of an outright ban from the Westminster government.

In April, public health minister Neil O’Brien announced a crackdown on the sale of vaping products to under-18s while committing to hand out vape kits to a million smokers to help them quit.

In Scotland, where the devolved government has the power to prevent the manufacture and sale of disposable vaping products but could not prevent them from entering the country via England, a government review will consider an outright ban.

NationalWorld previously reported the UKVIA, which represents a number of small firms as well as the ‘big four’ international tobacco companies, is a client of Conservative-linked consultant lobbyist JBP associates, and has previously supported the work of the APPG on vaping.

The relationship between UKVIA and the APPG prompted the committee for standards in public life to call for a review of the rules around APPGs in 2018. The industry body stopped providing secretariat services to the APPG in late 2019.

The UKVIA recently lashed out at the Scottish Greens, after the party’s health spokesperson called for supermarkets to “act responsibly” and voluntarily remove flavoured vape products from view, over concerns that they are particularly popular among young people.

Mr Dunne said the proposal “would be a huge backward and nonsensical step” and argued that “flavours play a critical role in helping adult smokers quit their habits through vaping”.

In the last year, three Conservative MPs have accepted hospitality from a major tobacco company which is increasingly pivoting toward the vape market - Japan Tobacco International (JTI).

Nigel Adams was given two tickets with hospitality to a concert at the O2 arena in April, worth £500. Craig Mackinlay and David Morris were both given two tickets and hospitality to a Queen concert at the O2 last June, worth £360 each.

Conservative MP Adam Afriyie was criticised earlier this year after i News revealed that he had encouraged the government to back vaping as a key part of its anti-smoking policy, without declaring his wife’s interest in a firm which sells disposable vapes.

Afriyie is a vice chair of the APPG on Vaping and has spoken in the commons several times about the benefits of vaping. He is also unpaid chair of the advisory board to Elite Growth, a medical cannabis firm which sells disposable vapes - both CBD and nicotine-based - and his wife is one of the company’s largest shareholders, with a five percent stake.