Vaping Discussion

[Sheffie]

Hello! I am a trainee journalist with the University of Sheffield and am currently working on a project about the trend of 'vaping' and am trying to gather opinions around it.
If you have a teenager or have an opinion on young people vaping, please leave a comment below telling me what you think!
This wont be published anywhere, it will be kept within the University as it is for a student project :)

Hi I see it as a huge problem. Have a walk around Hillsborough park bike track at dusk if you can. So many of the kids are vaping. Lots of them are 14 or younger. Then look around the shops. There are lots of vape shops. Take some photos of them and you can see a trend. All brightly colored, and very attractive to teens and children. The products are flavoured like sweets.
I personally have caught several shops selling to kids and trading standards are now doing some test shops as a result. These shops are on every high street.
There is also a darker social aspect to vaping in those underage. It causes arguments between the kids. Younger kids asking older kids to buy them. Money changing hands etc. Stealing each others vapes. They are small and easy to hide from parents
They are definitely addictive due to the nicotine and damaging to teeth.
There are laws around cigarettes. Cigarettes and tobacco are not on display but kept in plain cabinets. Vapes are laid out in a temping display in so many shops and shop windows. Even Poundland sell refills which are
Casually merchandised on the aisles with food items, not behind the counter.

I don’t see it as that big a problem. At 36 I vape and it’s the only thing that’s ever worked to keep me off the smokes. I’ve done patches gum champix inhalers etc but nothing worked like this. I smoked for over 25 years before this. Yes there are teens that vape but as parents and former smokers (or current smokers in the case of my friends) we always knew they’d likely start smoking at highschool as we did. And as our parents and grandparents and great grandparents did too. Most of the kids you see caping are kids who would have smoked had they been in highschool 20 years ago. As a parent in a deprived area I’m more concerned with keeping my kids away from heroin and crack than from vaping. No it wouldn’t be my choice for them but it’s probably the least of the many addictions that infect my community. We have kids as young as 12 trying crack and Valium

It is absolutely rife in school. Teenagers dismiss any dangers.

It's a major problem. It's rife in schools and seems to start as soon as kids start Secondary school (Y7), often influenced by older children. Unlike smoking, there isn't the tell-tale smell of smoke so harder for teachers / parents to keep tabs. My daughter is 12 years old (Y8), she was offered it at school in Y7 (thankfully refused). She has friends who are the same age and successfully bought capes at one of the dodgy American sweet stores. They are trying all the flavours - watermelon, peach, raspberry - like they are sweets. Vapes are easily hidden from parents. Not sure, but have a hunch it's worse amongst girls vs. boys, but have no data to back this up so feel free to challenge me here! IMO it's a major major issue that's not been investigated so I truly welcome your work.

A lot of teens also use it to cope with mental health too. Mental health is at a high after the pandemic and vaping has coincided with this.

Hi, I would like to add to this discussion. Please disclose your credentials so that i know who I am liaising with, thankyou.

It an horrendous problem for teens. They like the colours, they are made to attract teens, they can buy them easily. They like the fact that it makes them feel like they belong- equivalent of people chatting outside offices with cigarettes. They don’t believe they are dangerous- they spout nonsense about how safe they are compared to cigarettes- they are totally ignorant to the fact the are addicted to the nicotine and suffer withdrawal when they can’t afford them. The companies disgust me as they make it easy for young teens to buy online. The nicotine addiction means that children sometimes steal from their parents to buy them.

I’m a vaper who used ecigs to stop smoking. I don’t think all ecigs are problematic - it’s the cheap, small disposables the youngsters are going for. They’re easily hidden in schools, etc, and they’re affordable with pocket money. And they end up in landfill, they’re not properly recycleable - because you’d have to remove the battery before you even thought about recycling the rest of it. In my opinion, disposable vapes should be completely banned. Vaping followed the same trajectory in the USA: it was mostly ex-smoking adults, until the market was swamped with cheap disposables, and the youngsters wanted in on it.

Huge problem. All the kids round my area seem to vape, my 13 year old son included unfortunately. He tells me the shops just sell them to them no questions asked so I can confiscate but then he just gets hold of another. I’ve reported the local shops selling nicotine based vapes to kids to the school & police but nothing has been done to clamp down on their accessability.

I sent an e mail to a large local newsagent. I have proof that they sold 3 for £12 vapes to a 16 year old. I got abuse back. It's been reported to trading standards again. So many of these shops are not asking for ID

I spoke to my DD (14, year 10) about it last week as someone in a group I’m in raised it as their DD had tried it, then had to stop when parents found out and she was suffering from nicotine withdrawal. My DD said so many kids are doing it, far more than would have tried smoking. It has flavours that attract kids, and the colours are clearly something that attracts youngsters. Unlike cigarettes which have to be hidden away now there isn’t the same regulation over vaping shops. The sellers needs to be vigilant and ask for ID for anyone under 30.

this is outrageous!! I am a sewerside survivor and kids just throw their lives away?? How scandalous