Anecdotal reports from teachers suggest that underage e-cigarette use is becoming increasingly common.
So, how big a problem is vaping in secondary schools and what are the health consequences?
Has vaping become the 2022 equivalent of sneaking a fag round the back of the bike sheds? Sarah*, an English teacher and behavioural leader at a secondary school in the North of England, certainly thinks so.
“More and more, it’s becoming a massive issue in my school. We have kids vaping here on a daily basis. We suspect that it’s going on at every break time, every lunchtime, in every toilet. Our kids would never dare have a cigarette in the school toilets but they’ll vape because they know you can’t really smell it and you can’t really prove who it was,” she says.
It is illegal for children under the age of 18 to purchase or use e-cigarettes but that doesn’t seem to stop younger pupils getting their hands on them. Sarah says that, at her school, the problem is most common in Years 10 and 11, but that it is affecting Year 8 and 9 pupils, too.
And it’s not only happening in her school. In fact, the most recent figures from the UK charity Action on Smoking and Health (Ash) found that 11.2 per cent of 11- to 17-year-olds in the UK tried vaping in 2021. It’s less common in the under 16s: 6.5 per cent of 11- to 15-year-olds have tried vaping while, for 16-17 year olds, that rises to 23.2 per cent, and for 18-year-olds, it’s just under a third.
Christina Quaine – TES Magazine – 2022-04-22.
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