By Local Democracy Reporter Simon Finlay
A new study has laid bare the extent to which Kent’s youngsters have succumbed to nicotine addiction through vaping.
A survey of 5,493 pupils at 33 schools in the county showed that around 10% (562) are current vapers.
The results were presented to Kent County Council’s Health Reform and Public Health cabinet committee on March 11.
The study was set against a background of growing concern about the health impacts of vaping on young bodies.
Jason Hickson, of KCC’s Kent Analytics team, said the sample needed to be large, spread across the whole of the county and from all age groups.
He told the committee: “It (vaping) was perceived to be a socially acceptable thing to do, unlike smoking.”
Mr Hickson added: “One third (of the regular vapers) felt the need to vape every hour. That’s quite high and that suggests that proportion are addicted and 27% of vapers believe they are addicted or know they are addicted.”
Most of the vapers sourced their products from corner shops (49%) and vaping outlets (36%). More than three quarters of respondents favoured fruit flavours.
Of social media platforms promoting vaping products, 52% of the sample cited TikTok, said Mr Hickson.
Asked why they vape, 45% of respondents said it helps them “chill out and relax” and 39% said it makes them feel less anxious.
Mr Hickson told members: “Over half of current vapers said they do not wish to stop which is a little bit alarming.”
Public health officials agree that while vaping can wean smokers off tobacco, the products contain nicotine which is considered addictive.
Vapes can cause short-term side effects such as coughing, dizziness, sore throats and headaches.
But there is considerable concern that young people, whose bodies are still developing, are more susceptible to nicotine.
The papers state: “Despite the age of sale laws, there is a clear emerging trend in vaping among young people, generating public concern of potential health risks, nicotine addiction and fear of introducing a new gateway into smoking.”
There will be a ban on the sale of one-use disposable vape in June this year.
A similar survey will be carried out in 2026, to compare the statistics after the ban comes into force, the committee was told.
Mr Hickson said that he would like to see qualitative research to see if there is a correlation between vaping, the schools and their proximity to retail outlets.
Cllr Linda Wright, who represents Birchington, told colleagues she lives on a main road and regularly sees students “chucking away” their vapes before they get to school.
Rochester GP Dr Julian Spinks said much is unknown about the longer term effects of vape ingredients, such as moisture and glycerol, in young people.
It can cause rapid heart beats and could damage their teeth, he added.
Dr Spinks said: “Some vapes have a higher nicotine content than cigarettes and we don’t want young people addicted to it. We genuinely do not know at this stage about the long-term effects of these ingredients.
“Young people have got smaller bodies which are still growing and vaping could have greater side-effects. Nicotine is not a pleasant substance – it’s not harmless. It is developed in plants as an insecticide.”
Echoing the theme, Cllr Tony Hills told committee members: “We don’t know how dangerous they are. I think we need to flag up concerns about vapes. They could be harmless but they could also contain chemicals we don’t understand or know about.”
KCC Director of Public Health, Dr Anjan Ghosh, said the next issue to be addressed will be nicotine pouches which are placed under the upper lip.
He told the committee: “We semi-won the battle against smoking and then you have vaping coming in as the next frontier and then there is yet another frontier coming in in the form of nicotine pouches.”
Imagine relying on a chemical pen to get you through the day. Pathetic
Imagine imaginary things and you too can be annoyed about anything you don’t really understand. I’d rather folk addicted to these, which were found by public health england to be 95% safer than combustible tobacco and contain the same liquids used in many nhs issues nebulisers et al. Think of the savings to the nhs in future…
They should suck on a lollipop like Kojak for their oral fixation instead.
Think of the additional strain on the non existent NHS dentists!
The only thing I’ve ever been addicted to is music, something I became hooked on while emerging from my mother’s womb to the sounds of (then No. 1) Cliff Richard’s Bachelor Boy!
Thought Here In My Heart by Al Martino was numebr one when you were born.
The thing with pathological liars, is they can never be consistent.
I’ve never hidden the fact that I was born in January 1963 (it’s in 21 of my books!).
No surprise-the government & NHS pushed vaping as the thing to do to quit smoking & like the gambling company parasites allowed advertising painting it as being sexy & cool-just like the old fag adverts with hollywood celebrites & even doctors telling you what brand to smoke.
It was supposed to be to get people to stop smoking & eventually quit vaping as well. Instead it has as predicted hooked a whole new generation who never smoked on these things that nobody knows the long-term damage of, via bright packaging, flavours as if they were ice creams or slush puppies & cool imagery.
They were never invented as a quit all device.
They were invented as a cessation tool to move away from combustible tobacco.
You would know this if you had any idea of the history of the industry before commenting from a position of wilful ignorance.
“nobody knows the long-term damage of”
Prior to th eimplementation of EU TPD2016, there was EXTENSIVE peer reviewed testing of vapes carried out by public health england.
PHE found them (and were peer reviewed) to be 95% safer than combustible tobacco. Again, you’d know this if you operated factually, over operation solely on how you feel about it personally.
KCC Director of Public Health, Dr Anjan Ghosh, said the next issue to be addressed will be nicotine pouches which are placed under the upper lip.
He told the committee: “We semi-won the battle against smoking and then you have vaping coming in as the next frontier and then there is yet another frontier coming in in the form of nicotine pouches.”
Well, stop pushing all this stuff then-your industry pushed the nictoine chewing gum & patches in the 1990’s & 2000’s & then jumped onboard the vape wagon for the last 15 plus years. You said it was better than smoking, but in reality have no idea of the long term damage & the variance between brands-so why so keen to push it?
I don’t recall much outrage from the NHS about the clear marketing to young people with colourful, funky packaging & a variety of flavours like soft drinks & bubble gums being marketed to children/juveniles, sexy women puffing away seductively with double entendres galore & imagery making vaping the cool thing to be doing etc.
Clearly as per the tobacco companies the marketing was designed to hook young people onto their product-regardless of whether they even smoked or not. Bit late in the day to be crying about it now, after promoting it since the 2000’s
Ban the things.Vap boxes strewn everywhere.This group of people are UKs biggest litterers along with cigarette smokers who throw their butts everywher
e.Pick up your litter.
from what i read several years ago that vaping can cause a condition called cabbage lung which is very bad…i think vaping will turn out to be more deadly than smoking !!! i use to see so many young people vaping as they come out of school so they must be carrying them around with them…its like the system cares nothing about kids being addicted to nicotine which is a drug !!!
No such thing as cabbage lung, you misinformed plonker.
Nicotine, is a nootropic, and when not combined with the other 3000 chemicals in a cigarette, isn’t actually that harmful at all. Providing more of a benefit for concentration and information retention.
“Nicotine’s cognitive effects have gained significant attention in recent decades, and some non-smokers have even started using nicotine gum or patches as a nootropic. Research has shown that nicotine can speed up reaction time, improve working memory, and enhance focus and attention”
That was the plan wasn’t it. Introduced something addictive and carcinogenic, under the guise of stopping smoking. It’s like a toxic baby’s dummy and the cancers arising are already there to see.
I think your correct in that it was planned…its so sad to see so many young kids addicated to these poison vapes…young people seem to be main the targets…i read that so many young people are now developing cancers,young people are the future but i think there is something
so insidious going on in the world !!! but not just vapes but other things also which are be ing promoted as health over the last few years.
Public Health England declared vapes 95% safer than traditional cigs after extensive peer reviewed testing, pre implementation of the 2016 Tobbacco Products Directive.
See below – https://www.gov.uk/government/news/phe-publishes-independent-expert-e-cigarettes-evidence-review
The main findings of PHE’s evidence review are that:
vaping poses only a small fraction of the risks of smoking and switching completely from smoking to vaping conveys substantial health benefits
e-cigarettes could be contributing to at least 20,000 successful new quits per year and possibly many more
e-cigarette use is associated with improved quit success rates over the last year and an accelerated drop in smoking rates across the country
many thousands of smokers incorrectly believe that vaping is as harmful as smoking; around 40% of smokers have not even tried an e-cigarette
there is much public misunderstanding about nicotine (less than 10% of adults understand that most of the harms to health from smoking are not caused by nicotine)
the use of e-cigarettes in the UK has plateaued over the last few years at just under 3 million
the evidence does not support the concern that e-cigarettes are a route into smoking among young people (youth smoking rates in the UK continue to decline, regular use is rare and is almost entirely confined to those who have smoked)
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/e-cigarettes-around-95-less-harmful-than-tobacco-estimates-landmark-review
There is a LOT of ignorant, non factual bloviation in these comments, so here is some actual FACTUAL information.
You’re obviously a smoker. They tend to be uptight and grumpy.
Just ban it, along with smoking: Job done!
A good idea but will never happen cause its big business and money is more important than human life in this world.
And even it was, it would never be enforced. The smell of dope is everywhere, yet that is illegal.