MP uses Healthwatch evidence to raise concerns about vaping in children.
The report highlights the worrying prevalence and impact of vaping amongst children and young people, highlighting the views and experiences of children and young people themselves, as well as their families, and professionals who work with them.
The Healthwatch England policy team shared the report with a range of MPs and England’s chief medical officer Prof Chris Whitty, after they learned that it was probably the biggest survey of its kind of young people on vaping to date.
Dr Johnson specifically referenced Healthwatch Blackpool figures showing 11% of 10-11-year-olds, 19% of 12-13-year-olds and 42% of 16-17-year-olds had tried or were currently vaping; during:
- a debate on under-age vaping in the Commons on 12 July
- a Westminister Hall debate on 29 June
- a committee inquiry session on 28 June, in which MPs questioned public health experts and vaping companies about potential harms of vaping products and the way they were marketed at young people.
Speaking during the 29 June debate, Dr Caroline Johnson, an NHS paediatrician who is also a Conservative MP sitting on the influential House of Commons Health and Social Care Committee, has quoted figures from Healthwatch Blackpool’s new report, which is based on the views of more than 4,000 young people:
“The evidence submitted to the Health and Social Care Committee by the vaping industry suggests that over 83% of children have never vaped or are unaware of vaping, but that flies in the face of the experience of most of the children, teachers and doctors I have spoken to. Indeed, a report on Blackpool published by Healthwatch in May found that a staggering 31% of children and young people claim to vape or sometimes vape. More disturbingly still, when I asked Healthwatch if it could break down its figures by age, it said that one in ten 10 and 11-year-olds vapes. These are children in year 6. That rises to nearly one in five 12 to 13-year-olds, while for 16 to 17-year-olds the figure was almost one in two.”
The government is currently analysing results of a public consultation on youth vaping that ended in early June, to inform future measures to curb illegal access to vapes to under-18s.
