Last week, Bolton Council’s Trading Standards Team carried out a series of raids on local shops.
Among their targets were those suspected of selling vapes to school-age children.
People may not realise that it is illegal to sell these products to anyone aged under-18.
This legal age limit exists for a reason. Vaping is less harmful than smoking and can help people break the routines of smoking. But it isn’t harm free. In the short-term vaping can cause coughing, mouth and throat irritation, shortness of breath, and headaches. We don’t know the long-term effects. It is important to protect young lungs and brains.
Nicotine vapes are highly addictive and for this reason the advice is if you don’t smoke, don’t start vaping.
Recent figures show that whilst most young people don’t vape, rates have been rising. In England, the proportion of 11 to 15-year-olds using vapes increased from 6% to 9% from 2018 to 2021.
Worryingly, many vape products appear to be targeted and marketed specifically at children -with branding, flavours and cheaper disposables designed to appeal to children and young people.
The action taken locally by Bolton Council’s Trading Standards Team is part of a range of actions needed to protect children and young people across the borough.
In recent weeks we have seen an increasing number of high-profile calls for action to reverse the rise in vaping amongst children and young people.
Nationally, the Chief Medical Officer, Prof Sir Chris Whitty has called for action to reduce marketing of vaping products to young people saying it is “appalling” and “utterly acceptable” to market vapes to children.
Local councils too are calling for action. The Local Government Association wants to see a ban on disposable vapes noting that as well as concerns about the marketing of these products to children, they are costly to recycle, cause litter problems and are a fire hazard.
I support these calls for more action to do more, including additional restrictions on disposable vapes and on the marketing of vapes.
In the meantime, it is important we continue to work together across our borough to do what we can locally.
Bolton Council’s Trading Standards Team are clear that enforcement action will continue and that the illegal sale of vapes to under-18s will simply not be tolerated in Bolton.
Bolton’s Public Health Team are working with local schools to introduce a comprehensive toolkit of resources to support effective messaging to children and give them the facts.
Parents and carers can chat to their children about the use of vapes and explain the risks involved – there’s help on talking to young people about vaping on the NHS’s Better Health website.
These approaches taken together: local enforcement action, informing and engaging with children and young people, and calling for tougher national rules on branding and marketing of vapes will protect our children and help them lead healthier lives.