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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Politics
Rachel Hall and Clea Skopeliti

UK health expert raises alarm at vaping ‘epidemic’ among teenagers

teenager smoking a vape
Even though vaping is illegal before the age of 18, NHS figures for 2021 showed that 9% of 11- to 15-year-old children used e-cigarettes. Photograph: AleksandrYu/Getty Images/iStockphoto

One of the UK’s leading respiratory doctors has raised the alarm about the exploding popularity of vaping among teenagers, saying that without urgent regulation a generation could end up with long-term addictions and lung damage.

Dr Mike McKean, vice-president of policy for the Royal College of Paediatricians and Child Health, said vaping was becoming an “epidemic” among teenagers even though it is illegal before the age of 18. If its rapid growth maintains the same trajectory, almost all children will vape within five years, he said.

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