Richard Hogan: Vapes aimed at children hide behind 'smoke and mirrors' 

There will always be fads, and for the most part, they are benign and a bit of fun, but a recent fad that I find myself troubled by is that of vaping. It reminds me of the early days of cigarettes: marketed as rather harmless, with bright colourful pop-up shops everywhere. Yet, emerging research highlights that, far from a little fad that is harmless, this phenomenon is far worse for us than we think. 

A US analysis of e-cigarettes from two leading brands found that the samples contained carcinogens and other hazardous chemicals, including diethylene glycol, which is found in antifreeze.
These chemicals are dangerous for both adolescents and adults. The British Medical Association, the World Health Organization and the United States Surgeon General have each issued warnings about the dangers that may be associated with e-cigarettes. Yet, once again, we are behind the curve with legislation and so our children are being targeted by products that cause cardiovascular illness and lung damage. Parents need to be aware of the dangers and get their hands around this thing because it is damaging the health of their children.

It’s hard to walk through Stephens Green without looking like you’re on the set of a Louis Walsh boy band video, plumes of sweet-smelling smoke wafting through the air. It all reminds me of some sort of dystopian world where we allow our children to become addicts without a care in the world. 

How children are allowed to buy and consume a product we now know causes serious illness is staggering. I hear parents speaking about their confusion about e-cigarettes, they feel that at least their child isn’t smoking real cigarettes. It is this sentiment that allows parents to think that e-cigarettes are less harmful and a better option of the two. But the sad reality is, that adolescent smoking had decreased significantly over the last number of years. I have had many conversations with teenagers about their smoking habits and it was such an uplifting and positive conversation to be involved in as they generally described their disdain for tobacco companies, and delineated their understanding that smoking damages nearly every organ in the body. There was a real sense, for a moment, that adolescent smoking was a thing of the past. It was no longer viewed as being cool. Hollywood, too, played its part. There are very few movie scenes with leading men and ladies smoking anymore. All of this, coupled with an adolescent interest in fitness had a huge impact on smoking habits. But just when we thought our children were no longer susceptible to unscrupulous tobacco companies, vaping arrived and hooked our children to their harmful product.

Another alarming aspect of vaping is that children can modify their vaping devices. This can increase the strength of the product and the impact it has on the person inhaling it. Research reveals many children buy their vaping devices from less reputable online shops which can mean they are inhaling products that have thousands of unknown ingredients in them. So, if you have a child at home vaping, it is really important that you look at what he/she/they is doing not as a harmless fad but rather as an addictive habit that is damaging the health of that child. 

It is important that you become informed about vaping. A quick bit of research shows how damaging it actually is, and how there has been a surge in lung injuries and deaths associated with vaping. In February 2020, the

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

(the American national public health agency) confirmed 2,807 cases of e-cigarette or vaping use-associated lung injury, (EVALI) and 68 deaths attributed to that condition. 

A 2020 statement on this issue by the UK government can be read

here.

As parents, we have to be vigilant about what new craze is gripping our children's worlds. E-cigarettes and vaping are not a good substitute for smoking, they are not harmless. They are damaging our children’s health. Of course, adolescence is a time of risk-taking and adventure but we have to make sure, as parents, that the errors they make on that adventure are not severe and damaging to their future life. We need legislation, and we need to parent this issue. 

This article was edited to include references to an FDA study and a UK government statement.