Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

This epidemic developed from 2007 onwards. The fact that the tobacco industry is involved should send a warning signal to all concerned. There is terrible complacency about this issue. I do not know how these devices ever got onto the market without some controls. Young people are being targeted with the same strategies as previously, using flavoured vaping devices to get children on board and hook them on the product.

There is now growing teen use of vaping devices. We had been really succeeding in terms of getting young people away from the whole idea of nicotine addiction. The whole strategy here is to get young children and young people addicted to nicotine via these vaping devices. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, CDC, has always been the leader in terms of research and work in public health generally. It is sending out alarm signals and is producing an advisory saying to people not to use vaping devices. I accept there are complications in terms of the utilisation of THC in some of the devices in the United States, and the vitamin E acetate as well. The very fact that 1,000 people have had lung injuries, including young people of 22 and 23 years, and 19 deaths have occurred, should really send alarm signals here. This is a global epidemic fuelled by a massive, resourceful industry and we need far more urgency in our national response to it than has been evident to date.

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