Irish Examiner View: It is already too late to stem popularity of vaping among teens?

Government intends to pass legislation which would ban under 18s from vaping, but if the experience of the UK is anything to go by, it may already be doomed to failure.

Tánaiste Micheál Martin has called the rise of vaping 'the revenge of the tobacco industry'. File Picture.

Research in Ireland has consistently linked a reversal of years of progress in dissuading teenagers from taking up smoking with the ubiquity and popularity of vapes. 

Tánaiste Micheál Martin even said on the Irish Examiner’s Let Me Tell You Podcast that its growth represented “the revenge of the tobacco industry” for the 2004 smoking ban.

Mr Martin believes the Government must get on with passing legislation which would ban under 18s from vaping, a suggestion which was agreed by Cabinet last November.

According to the WHO, there are 16,000 different flavours of vapes, such as bubble gum and gummy bears, and there are concerns that this is a gateway to smoking.

In the UK, vaping has continued to increase among youngsters despite a ban, largely because of illegal resellers. An “illicit vapes enforcement squad”, led by Trading Standards officers, is now being established. 

Sometimes, good intentions are not enough.