A teenager collapsed near his school gates after taking his first ever puff on a vape. The pupil's headteacher has now issued a warning.
Headteacher Glyn Potts said the child made a full recovery but he is warning of the dangers of vaping on young people's health. Mr Potts told MEN: "We don't know what is going in the vapes themselves, and a number of them are repurposed.
"We are seeing vapes that have been reignited with chemicals and toxins that we don't know about. That's certainly the case with the young man that collapsed at our school.
"It certainly overwhelmed that young person, and then he began to feel very very sick and collapsed.
Mr Potts. said a number of schools have seen similar incidents as the number of vapes 'repurposed for illicit means' grows.
"Young people need advice and information that this type of device is not safe," he said. "Even in the most simple nicotine vape, they contain 12 times the amount of nicotine that a cigarette does. I'm not sure that an 11, 12, 13-year-old body can handle that."
Mr Potts said the incident had left the pupil's classmates shaken and 'worried'. "It does shock and scare young people when they see their friends become ill after just puffing on what appears to be innocuous white smoke," he said.
He warned parents to beware of a 'misconception' that vaping is a safer alternative to smoking for young people.
"I think there's a misconception by some parents that vaping is safe or vaping will stop the young person moving on to smoking and therefore its relatively harmless," he said. "But we're actually creating nicotine-addicted young people, which is then leading to other challenges and other illnesses.
"Flavours like cherry blossom might make them more appealing - but they mean the same dangers."
He added: "Everyone knows the dangers of smoking, but when smoking first arrived it was almost presented as a healthy thing to do. I think vaping has that air around it, where individuals feel like there are no dangers associated with it.
"We don't know the impact of vaping - and we need that information because the reality is it is simply not a safe option for young people."
In the UK, vapes can be legally sold to anyone over the age of 18.
