Thank you for vaping: How tobacco companies are attracting a new generation

New plans to ban the sale of 'heated tobacco products' cast light on the myriad ways tobacco companies now have to encourage young people's dependence on nicotine, including vaping, which is now immensely popular among people of all ages

Katelyn Benson, 19, from Ballisadare, Co Sligo: 'People would shun you if you smoked but they have no problem with vaping.' Picture: James Connolly

Kate Winslett vaped her way through Mare of Easttown, teenagers puff on flavoured e-cigarettes and across Europe, sales of heated tobacco are spiralling.

However as interest grows among adults and some claim vaping helps quit smoking tobacco, there is growing concern at the number of young teens vaping, with one youth worker saying children as young as 13 are vaping in schools.

A teen advocate with Spunout said bluntly that tobacco smokers are shunned but vaping is attractive for teens of all ages.

The arguments centre on a new generation of products taking over from cigarettes and rollies.

E-cigarettes, known also as vapes, heat nicotine, water and propylene glycol, or glycerine with flavourings. Vaping does not produce tar or carbon monoxide. The maximum nicotine concentration here is 20mg/ml.

Some need batteries or to be charged, but disposable vapes offering a set number of puffs can be used and thrown away.

Juice flavour options

Juice flavour options appear endless and can include banana, cola, apple, pink lemonade, bubblegum, coffee or mango.

A quick swipe through sales websites shows a dizzying array of colourful packaging, a million miles away from dour Marlboro Man.

Another product that hit the headlines last month is called heated tobacco. Unlike vapes, this contains tobacco leaf.

It is sold in small containers, often resembling stumpy cigarettes, and the leaf is heated instead of burned. This produces a nicotine-containing vapour and companies claim they are a better choice than continuing to smoke.

It has been estimated about 200,000 people use vaping products and they can be bought at more than 300 retailers and newsagents. Picture: Nick Ansell/PA Wire

The EU recently identified at least 10% sales growth in heated tobacco across the region, with some countries’ sales spiking up even higher. The commission is considering a ban under its smoking-reduction policies.

Katelyn Benson,19, says discussions around vaping are leaving young people out, especially by focusing on whether or not vaping helps smokers quit tobacco.

“Half of the people I know who vape have never touched a cigarette in their lives,” she said. “People would shun you if you smoked but they have no problem with vaping. “ 

No giveaway reek of tobacco

Vaping is more attractive, she said as there is no giveaway reek of tobacco to alert adults.

“It is easier to hide from your parents,” she said. “It tastes sweet, and you can sit on your bed and do it or in the bathroom. 

No one is going to know you are vaping because it smells sweet, they could pass as perfume or candles.” 

Cost is a big draw too, the contributor to youth information website Spunout said, especially for disposable vapes.

“They’re very cheap too, they’re so cheap. You go in and get them for seven or eight euro,” she said. 

“They’re for nothing compared to what you spend on cigarettes.” 

She said it is assumed to be healthier than smoking. However, she is concerned at the lack of long-term information on these relatively new products.

“I said to them it’s so funny you are puffing away on that, and we don’t really know what is doing to your system,” she said.

The HSE advises the safety of long-term use of e-cigarettes is not known and it does not recommend them as an aid to quitting smoking. File picture: AP/Craig Mitchelldyer

Parents too are noticing there is something up.

In Cork, one mother, who did not wish to be named, was surprised at how quickly vaping caught on with her teenage son and his friends.

“My son is vaping and he is so healthy, fitness-mad. He plays rugby and hurling, it’s so contradictory,” she said.

“All my fellow mams and dads in the school are so concerned as really we are unaware of the long-term health issues that vaping will have on this generation.” 

Call for stronger stance by Government

She would like to see the Government taking a stronger stance, saying her son is finding it hard to cut down.

“If they [shops] were not allowed to display them out front along with the chocolate and crème eggs but away behind the shelves with the cigarettes, that would be a starter,” she said.

These concerns are widely shared, even among the vape retail industry.

Irish Vape Vendors Association (IVVA) representatives recently told TDs they would not object to raising the legal age for buying e-cigarettes upwards from 18.

IVVA director and managing director of Vapourpal Joanne O’Connell, said: “It’s [vaping] better than smoking but it is not better than not-smoking. I would have no problem with the age being increased to 21.” 

In her own shop, they do police customers’ ages, but she is not reassured this is done in non-specialist shops.

“I agree that some packaging is probably overly colourful. I would not say it is targeted towards kids because adults are attracted to these things too,” she said.

Adults are attracted to colours and flavourings. We find many of our customers will start on a tobacco flavour but once they start vaping, they really want to be away from the flavour of tobacco completely.” 

In England, there have been discussions around adding vapes to prescriptions aiding quitting smoking.

The NHS advises: “Many thousands of people in the UK have already stopped smoking with the help of an e-cigarette. There's growing evidence that they can be effective.” 

This may not be clearcut, however, with the Irish Health Research Board finding: “E-cigarettes are less harmful than combustible cigarettes, but health risks remain.” 

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The HSE advises the safety of long-term use of e-cigarettes is not known and it does not recommend them as an aid to quitting smoking.

The IVVA and others argue the market is already tightly regulated with maximum nicotine concentrations, volumes for cartridges, tanks and nicotine liquid containers.

The Public Health (Tobacco and Nicotine Inhaling Products) Bill (2019) is under review. It says shops must apply for a licence to sell vapes and heated tobacco, or a different licence to sell these and cigarettes.

200,000 people use vaping products

It has been estimated about 200,000 people use vaping products and they can be bought at more than 300 retailers and newsagents.

John Dunne from Vaping Business Ireland told TDs nicotine warnings on products are also mandatory.

Manufacturers, importers and distributors are required to notify the HSE if they believe any product to be unsafe, he explained.

Sometimes this happens the other way around.

In May, the HSE called on the public to stop using some Aroma King e-cigarettes. Sales were halted because they were found to have as much as 50.4mg/ml nicotine despite labelling saying 20mg/ml.

The alert included disposable Aroma King Bar 600 puffs in flavours like Ice Skittles and Monster.

At Bridgeways Family Resource Centre in Longford, Grace Kearney said in her experience children cannot handle any level of nicotine in e-cigarettes, describing them as “addictive”.

“They have the vape all of the time, sitting and puffing on it regularly,” she said. 

Even a chain smoker doesn’t have a cigarette all the time, whereas this is constant. It is like an extension of their hand.” 

When children do water-sports at the centre, she sees their lung capacity is affected, and they are dropping out, she said.

“It is not attractive to smoke, but it is attractive to vape,” she said.

“I know people who got off smoking with vaping, and I understand that. But I don’t agree with children 13 and 14 years old vaping, they have never smoked. They are just vapers.” 

Her concerns are echoed in the new Junior Cycle SPHE curriculum, which includes lessons on vaping, tobacco, nicotine addiction and marketing by vaping and tobacco industries.

Involvement of global tobacco companies

Unease is growing too at involvement of global tobacco companies in vaping and development of heated tobacco.

“Some of the biggest, most widely available e-cigarette brands are owned by tobacco companies,” California Department of Public Health research programme ‘Still Blowing Smoke’ has found.

Indeed, the website of The Altria Group, formerly known as Philip Morris International of Marlboro Man fame, states it is “in transition” to a smoke-free future.

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently banned sales of a Juul vaping device, tobacco and menthol flavoured cartridges for failing to meet health standards. The company, part-owned by Altria, has appealed.

The FDA has since put its ban on hold and said it will do an additional review of the company's marketing application

Imperial Brands, formerly Imperial Tobacco, says it is expanding “into potentially less harmful alternatives to traditional tobacco products”. 

A smart move by a dying industry or a cynical bet that vaping keeps the puffing habit alive?

The Health Research Board said it found teenagers who use e-cigarettes are three to five times more likely to start smoking tobacco cigarettes compared to those who never vaped.

It is far from just an Irish challenge, with British data showing the proportion of children aged 11 to 17 currently vaping jumped from 4% in 2020 to 7% this year. Disposable vapes were favoured by 52% of those who vaped, up from 7%.

TikTok was mentioned most often as the source of online promotion (45%), followed by Instagram (31%) and Snapchat (22%).

Ms Benson said: “It’s more of a norm these days. I was at Longitude there a few days ago, and you just saw people vaping all the time. You’re surrounded by it so much, you can’t really be like I don’t care about it.

“It is everywhere.” 

A rite of passage

Vaping is becoming a “rite of passage” into first year at secondary school says Grace Kearney, who has worked with teenagers for 13 years.

“It’s not a problem, it’s an epidemic and it is ruining young people’s lives,” she said. “I have never seen a craze like this, it is so accessible, so cheap. It’s completely geared for young people, with all the different flavours.” 

 A project coordinator at the Bridgeways Family Resource Centre in Co Longford, she said: “I am seeing children dropping out of sports” due to vaping.

“I feel that parents and kids don’t realise the impact these highly addictive vapes are having on their lungs, their capacity and their concentration because they are so addicted to them,” she said.

The centre offers activities including free space for teens to hang out in.

“I am doing summer camps at the minute, they are doing kayaking, they are doing water activities, they are doing obstacles. And they are not fit for anything,” she said.

I am looking at 13 and 14 year olds absolutely gasping for breath, this has to do with vaping.” 

She is reluctant to ban vaping outright at the centre and instead has restricted use, as she worries teenagers would go somewhere less safe instead.

“I’d like to see some form of marketing around the display, the taste of them, the flavours. Banning them is not the answer,” she said.

“When an adult wants to vape, by all means off you go and vape. That’s fine. I’m talking about young people and how it’s nearly a rite of passage now into first year.” 

She said not all teenagers vape, but “a lot” more do now than before the pandemic.

“The majority are smoking 20mg/ml a day, right up to 50mg, which is supposed to be illegal,” she said. 

“I don’t know where they are getting them, but they are getting them locally.” 

In May Irish shops were asked to stop selling vaping products found to have a 54mg/ml nicotine concentration in vaping juice (nicotine, propylene glycol or glycerine with flavourings and water).

Ms Kearney said smoking tobacco is of little interest to teenagers.

“A disposable vape is only a little wider than a pen, you can just put it down your bra or you can put it at the side of your shorts. It is so easy to transport and it is so instant,” she said.