This elf bar craze ........

[VoluptuaGoodshag]

It's getting worrying. There is little research into the long term effects. It seems to have risen from less than 1% of teens using them in January 2021 to over 50% in a year. Each elf bar has the equivalent nicotine of 50 fags!! My teenage son thankfully has body swerved them but says virtually every girl he knows is addicted to them, even having sly puffs in the class room. They are advertised everywhere with juicy sounding flavours, marketed at the young imo and not much is being done about it.

The Guardian has covered this in some detail in recent months - good background reads here:

www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/nov/10/vaping-britain-teens-smoking-government

and

www.theguardian.com/society/2022/jul/23/child-vaping-epidemic-risks-becoming-public-health-catastrophe-in-uk-experts-warn

Sorry, live links Here and here

The disposable ones (aimed at kids, pocket money) have a battery in you can't recycle. Lidl used to take them but they stopped now (idk if that's just local or national) they are pure addiction devices.

Never heard of them. Just another thing to worry about as my son heads into his teens 😡

www.electrictobacconist.co.uk/elf-bar?filter=t28-1019

Look at these and tell me they aren't aimed at kids.

The tobacco/vape industry really is shameless. It's all the old fag marketing techniques being recycled - make it cool, catch them young etc etc.

I had a couple of girls stop me to ask if I'd buy them a vape from a newsagents. I resisted giving them a lecture about how they were being manipulated by big business into getting hooked on a very expensive habit with entirely unknown long term health impacts, but politely declined to help them out.

Yes, really worrying. At DC1's school they're hugely popular among girls. They're used quite openly in the cloakrooms between lessons, apparently, and traded.
I've just reported a small corner shop close to the school which sells them indescriminately to school kids, according to DD. She's definitely easily led and loves the idea of quirky, cute, collectable things like these, ditto Monster cans. I'm hyper-vigilant!

@Kalasbyxor it's curious as to why more girls than boys seem to be using them (anecdotal evidence). What's going on I wonder?

Yep she will puff away on it constantly. Personally I can barely tolerate a few tokes and it really irritates my throat. But then I guess it's just what you're used to. Like comparing silk cut to Marlborough reds

They are the worst, so wasteful, so addictive, so clearly intended to be addictive, so clearly aimed at the young.
I’m not sure I wouldn’t prefer my kids to smoke cigarettes.

I Vape, I started to stop smoking, I use 6mg in a pod kit. My friend also stopped at the same time and uses the 20mg elf bars, I don’t know how she will ever get off them. You do get lower nicotine ones, I keep gently telling her to reduce the nicotine as she wants to stop them. But can’t.

I seem to remember more girls smoked at school, back in the old days? That’s purely anecdotal mind.

Those wondering 'why more girls' - nicotine is an effective appetite suppressant.

This fact was used hugely in advertising cigarettes to women and is still a draw to young women today.

This is the thing: the limit of nicotine in a vape in the U.K. is such that you don’t quite get the hit you would off of a cigarette, I wonder if it’s intentional? Because as a casual smoker I can take a puff or two of a cigarette and yikes, message received! But a vape you can just keep going.

I've described them to others as the crack cocaine of nicotine and I'm really concerned about all the use in young teens.
There's none of the off putting aspects of cigarettes. Even non-smokers can have a puff on them and feel no ill effects. They don't make you smell or feel sick ime. They are so easy just to puff away on. They basically taste like sweets.
DD2 says her university friends will buy them to go to clubs as apparently people vape in there (they don't give out clouds of vapour like some devices do). They do this despite never having smoked. She does ask them why on earth they are doing this if they would never smoke and thinks it's ridiculous (she's not one for keeping her opinions to herself which is not always a good thing)

So yes - I share your concerns.
I haven't smoked for 2 years now and reducing the vapes currently

Voluptua, I have a theory about the 'twilight years' of girls' early teenhood; so often a pull toward the edgy, dark and borderline morose. Skating along the boundaries of safety and danger is irresistible to many young girls, a kind of secretive collective rabbithole of risk -I see it all the time in my work. A mix of seeking validation, signalling independence and social contagion. I don't see much evidence of peer pressure, the girls seem to embrace it.

I was definitely like this and now look back in pale disbelief at the string of near misses which my early teens consist of, actively seeking to rub up against anything percieved to be off-limits, like I was collecting some kind of hazard-points. It is with mounting anxiety that I note that DC1, despite my best efforts, seems to have inherited this attraction to risk at what is an inherently vulnerable time of her life.

I definitely have suppressed hunger cravings with my vape, I don't rammel snacks while I work instead I vape. Plus I don't go outside for a fag I just toot away at my screen.

I don't get a nicotine hit like from a cigarette just a constant top up. I even vape in the night but I did used to get up for a smoke.

If I had teens or even tweens I'd be very worried.

Same!

They are basically the fashion with kids at the moment. Kids even sell them at school. Thankfully my son isn't interested. You can buy elf bars that have zero nicotine or less %.

Definitely going on at my DCs school. Mine say they haven't tried it which I can believe as they are risk adverse. DD said it was exactly the fact they are different colours that appeals to the kids. At the time I didn't know about the vaping craze but now I see them thrown on the pavements and gutters all the time. Seem to have replaced the face mask litter!

They absolutely needs to be some legislation about packaging and health warnings on them.

We've just started selling these where I work and they do seem hugely popular. A lot of people buying them seem to be in their 20s/30s, men and women, so maybe they're popular across the board... I'll be having a closer look at the packaging later, I cant believe they're the same as 50 fags! They're only £5.99

As a smoker/vaper I find them a bit addictive and I’m only using them as they are handy and easy to carry with my refillable vape I need to make sure I have liquid with me in case it runs out, a charger etc
I will only use them when I need to otherwise I’ll use my refillable vape as long term that works out cheaper

It's one of those trends that will die out eventually
As a teenager I was swigging cider in the park oops

Vaping is a real issue in schools.

They don’t set off the fire alarms and smell like perfume so are really hard to detect.

Yes it does seem to be mostly girls doing it but I have no idea why, maybe they’re are seen as more feminine.

The are definitely better for you than actual fags and I’m glad fewer young people are smoking fags but the real issue is that they are almost purposely designed to be aimed at young people - they smell nice, have flavours like frutti tutti and bubble gum and you get them in a range of different pretty colours.

How many 50 year old men go to the shop to buy strawberry bubble gum - hardly any.

So a product that is strawberry bubblegum flavour is not going to be aimed at that demographic.

I’m a 32 year old female and I’ve not brought strawberry bubble gum for years either so it’s not aimed at my demographic either.

They are manufactured for much younger people.

I think they should continue to make vapes but either get rid of all the nice flavours or make them much more difficult to see and purchase, just like with proper tobacco.

One of the liquids I bought is actually called Dinner Lady. It needs regulation and fast before we have half a generation of nicotine addicts again.