Catherine Noone (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I was shocked to read a report from the United Kingdom today showing that one in five students aged between 14 and 17 had bought or tried to buy e-cigarettes. The report also revealed that one in 20 of these teenagers had never smoked conventional cigarettes before, which suggests that vaping may have become a new activity with which to experiment among teenagers, rather than a device to help to quit conventional cigarettes, which is the purpose for which they were intended. Moreover, this extensive study, which was conducted in Liverpool, monitored 16,000 teenagers in the north west of England and was published in the journal BMC Public Health, found a strong link between cigarettes and alcohol use. The study revealed that underage drinkers were more likely to have obtained e-cigarettes than were non-drinkers, while among the non-smokers, binge drinkers were four times more likely to have bought or tried e-cigarettes. This report is all the more concerning, given that here in this country, we tend to mirror trends in the United Kingdom.

Although the Government has acknowledged that e-cigarettes contain a highly addictive substance and has approved the drafting of legislation prohibiting the sale of such products to those who are under 18 years of age, as matters stand there are no specific regulations governing electronic cigarettes in Ireland. While e-cigarettes are considered to be less potentially harmful than regular cigarettes, the long-term health consequences of vaping are not yet well known. Concern already has been expressed in the United States about the safety of the liquid inside e-cigarettes, which, if ingested on its own, can be harmful.

Such a speedy infiltration into teenage culture of what in essence is a new drug is alarming. It has been shown that exposure to nicotine in adolescence may lead to lifelong risk of addiction and keeping the rates low in youths should be the top priority for all Members. In Scotland, Ministers are consulting the public on a crackdown on e-cigarettes, including a ban on their sale to persons under 18, advertising restrictions and other such measures. As such, I call for the fast-tracking of legislation to prohibit the promotion and sale of e-cigarettes to teens.