Vaping has led a surge of young people using nicotine/tobacco products

Experts have also warned that the decrease in tobacco cigarette use has slowed in parallel with a rise in e-cigarette use. Picture: iStock

The number of young people vaping and/or using other tobacco products has surged from less than 20% in 2015 to 30% almost a decade later., new Irish analysis shows.

Experts have also warned that the decrease in tobacco cigarette use has slowed in parallel with a rise in e-cigarette use.

Ireland has seen an experiment in “unrestricted access” to vapes with worrying consequences, warned Paul Kavanagh, chair of the Royal College of Physicians clinical advisory group on smoking and e-cigarettes.

It follows a finding this week from the Irish National Cancer Registry that up-take of e-cigarettes has been “particularly marked among young people and adolescent non-smokers”.

Dr Kavanagh was co-author on new Irish analysis published in The Lancet Regional Health – Europe. He said: 

It may well be another 10, 15, 20 years before we have a definitive and clear picture in relation to the health effects of e-cigarettes particularly when it comes to some disease categories like cancer.

“Nicotine is a poison, it’s a psychoactive drug, and it’s addictive. These e-cigarette products contain nicotine and in fact they can contain it in uncertain and unpredictable doses.” 

Dr Kavanagh added: “Of course there is then that concern also that using an e-cigarette may lead young people to go on and start smoking.” 

Surge in uptake of vaping 

The analysis showed that vape use increased from 3.1% to 8.4% across all ages, and dual use increased from 1.3% to 3.1%.

Among those aged 15–24 use of vapes and/or tobacco increased from 19·6% in 2015 to 30% in 2023.

They also found that while in 2015 the use of vapes and tobacco cigarettes together was “strongly associated” with higher odds of wanting to quit smoking, that is no longer the case.

This is against a backdrop of the ban on sales of vapes and tobacco products to under-18s since December 2023.

Despite that ban, teenagers speaking to the Irish Examiner described how vapes remain very popular.

HSE data on prosecutions  

New HSE figures show that 51 retailers were prosecuted for selling tobacco products to children last year including — for the first time — eight prosecutions for sale of vapes to children.

Disposable vapes in breach of regulations that were purchased in Waterford City. Picture: Joe Evans

HSE assistant national director for environmental health Ann Marie Part said: “While the majority of retailers take active measures to confirm the age of someone buying tobacco or vape products, it is disappointing to see some retailers still selling to children.” 

She added: “All it takes is a request for ID at the counter to ensure you are selling to someone over the legal age.” 

Also last year the HSE National Environmental Health Service prosecuted two shops for selling e-cigarettes with nicotine levels higher than legally allowed.

In 2023, working in conjunction with Customs and Revenue, they seized 37.8 tonnes and last year 26.6 tonnes of vapes or refill products with illegal nicotine levels.

Links between sales of vapes and the tobacco industry were discussed during the World Conference on Tobacco Control in Dublin this week.