Vape warning as serious lung issues among children ‘becoming an epidemic’, experts warn

More children are being admitted to hospital with serious lung issues from vaping, NHS figures have revealed.

Forty youngsters under the age of 19 were admitted to hospital over the past year because of illegally-sold vapes with 15 of them children, aged nine or under.

Twelve children in this category were admitted in 2022, while just two were admitted in the year before, showing a steep rise in the figures.

The Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health said the issue was "fast becoming an epidemic" while NHS England Chief Amanda Pritchard described the figures as "seriously concerning".

Ms Pritchard said it is “really important we nip this in the bud”. She added: “To many young people vaping can seem harmless with their deliberately appealing flavours.

“At least two people in every year 10 classroom have vaped at one point or another. We need to keep young people out of hospital and prevent future health issues."

The figures come after Prime Minister Rishi Sunak announced £3 million funding in April for a squad of trading standards officers to tackle shops illegally selling vapes to children.

He said he wanted to look at "how can we strengthen the rules on how they are marketed, promoted - what do they look like".

He added: "It looks like they are targeted at kids which is ridiculous - I don’t want my kids seduced by any of these things."

The party promised to work with local councils and the NHS to ensure vapes "are being used as a stop smoking aide, rather than a new form of smoking", while Labour has said if it wins power the party would ban vapes from being branded and advertised to appeal to children if it wins power.

A 25-year-old woman told NationalWorld she suffered “coughing fits” every day because of her vaping addiction and was left struggling to climb a single flight of stairs.

She said: “I felt very suffocated by my vape - it was literally always in my hand, the first thing I did when I woke up and the last thing I did before I went to sleep.

“Yes, I had a nicotine addiction but it was a very different kind of addiction than cigarettes and one that felt significantly worse because of how portable it was.”

A professor of Toxicology at Imperial College London said the use of vapes should be controlled “for public health” and “should only be used to help people quit smoking”.

Data from NHS Digital recently revealed that the number of young people vaping has 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, according to statistics.

Experts have said that although it’s safer for those who smoke to switch to vaping, those who don’t already smoke shouldn’t start using e-cigarettes.

Terry Murphy, national business development manager, NHS leadership coach and author at Radar Healthcare, said some smokers “turn to vape products” in a bid to quit cigarettes as it still provides nicotine, but with “less of the toxins” that come from tobacco.

However, he added that although vaping products are “less harmful than cigarettes”, they are “not harmless” and many people still find themselves dependent on them and struggle to quit them completely.

Abbas Kanani, pharmacist at Chemist Click, said e-liquid concoctions usually include some mix of flavourings, additives and nicotine, dissolved in an oily liquid base. Nicotine is a “highly addictive” chemical found in the tobacco plant, which causes the brain to release adrenaline and “create a buzz of pleasure and energy” which can lead users to “crave the effects and become addicted”, he added.

He said nicotine also raises blood pressure and spikes your adrenaline, “increasing the chances of having a heart attack”, and explained he’s met a number of people who also developed oral thrush which was “most likely caused by vaping”.