Ollie Crowe (Fianna Fail)

This morning I raise the issue of vaping, especially the growth in vaping we have seen among young people in recent years. The proportion of young people in Ireland using vapes and other tobacco products has increased significantly, rising from under 20% in 2015 to 30% in less than ten years, according to research from the Irish National Cancer Registry. Many of us have sort of believed vaping to be more or less safe, but as Paul Kavanagh, chair of the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland clinical advisory group on smoking and e-cigarettes, pointed out, when commenting on this research, that the reality is it will be another ten or 20 years before we know the full health effects of e-cigarettes. Dr. Kavanagh also emphasised that nicotine is a toxic and addictive substance and that e-cigarettes can deliver it in unpredictable and inconsistent doses.

There is also significant concern about e-cigarettes being a gateway to cigarettes. The steady decline in traditional smoking has slowed considerably, which lends credibility to that suggestion. Basically, people are starting out on e-cigarettes and then moving on to cigarettes. According to the experts, three in ten of all teenagers are using these products, we still do not know the health effects and we will not know them for years to come. I do not think I am on the only one in this House reflecting that we do not know the health effects of e-cigarettes and hoping this does not end with a similar story to cigarettes. These statistics are very alarming. We need to have more discussion on it in this House. I ask that the matter be raised with the Minister for Health and request that she joins us in the coming weeks.