‘Now vapes look sleek, they are attractive and have sweet-tasting flavours that appeal to the younger generation’

THIRTY or forty years ago, you could count on one hand the teenagers in a secondary school playground who had not tried smoking.

Many children growing up in the 1980s and 1990s were quickly hooked and would have had a 10 packet of fags accompanying their calculators and pencils in the school bag.

There was in the 2000s a complete revolution of young people turning their backs on tobacco. It began with outlawing smoking in public places and has been cemented through bans on advertising, explicit warnings on packets showing what is coming down the line, and removing the shop counter displays.

All this progress has been undone by the vaping industry. Just like cigarettes were advertised in the 1950s and 1960s as beneficial to health, vaping has been presented as a healthy option. Health officers are conflicted because they see the huge impact on the number of people quitting smoking.

When vapes first came on the scene they were peculiar and complicated-to-use products that billowed huge clouds of vapour into the air. They made smokers – generally understated types – look ridiculous.

Now the vapes look sleek, they are attractive and have sweet-tasting flavours that appeal to the younger generation. Unlike before, they pack the same kind of punch as a cigarette or rollie. The trouble is that they are just as hard to put down, if not harder.

It is likely that inhaling chemical infused vapour into the lungs is better for you than smoking tobacco. But this has not conclusively been proven.

Diacetyl is frequently added to flavored e-liquid to enhance the taste. Inhaling diacetyl causes inflammation and may lead to permanent scarring in the smallest branches of the airways – popcorn lung – which makes breathing difficult.

Popcorn lung has no lasting treatment.Young people will probably wonder about that nagging cough without realising the damage that is being done.

Hundreds of teenagers in Camden will be living with the perpetual sense of being on edge thanks to becoming hooked on nicotine for the first time due to disposable vapes.

The government had tough words about the devices before Christmas when a “ban” was announced. This has now been pushed back to late 2025.

What is going to happen between then and now? Hundreds more teenagers will be picking them up.

The Healthwatch report investigating the impact on Camden teenagers makes a timely plea for a major push to improve education in schools. It calls for an urgent ban on shopfront promotions and for explicit warnings stickers like you see on tobacco.

The trouble is, as ever with reports like these, will anyone listen?