Call to ban vaping in Plymouth schools

Who'd have thought it was allowed?

A call for schools to ban single-use vapes to prevent children becoming addicted to nicotine has been supported unanimously by Plymouth City councillors.

They’re welcoming reports the government is preparing to ban the disposable e-cigarettes, but want to take action now to prevent potential health risks to children as young as 11 who they say are taking up the habit in the city.

They are also concerned about the environmental impact after hearing that five million vapes go to landfill a week, which could fill the pitch at Plymouth’s Home Park 22 times over.

Each vape contains on average 0.15g of lithium, which equates to 10 tonnes thrown away a year in the UK – enough to make around 1,200 electric cars.

Cllr Terri Beer (Ind, Plympton Erle), who proposed the motion, said young people who have never smoked are tempted to vape.

“This is having a clear impact in our schools with evidence of unruly behaviour by some students and an impact on young people’s learning,” she said.

She added that while vaping was successful in helping adults give up smoking as it contained lower amounts of nicotine, children are attracted to vape stores as it is “like walking into a sweet shop” with flavours such as gummy bears, pear drops and even crème eggs.

“They say they are targeting adults for nostalgic reasons, and not children, but we were not all born yesterday. Selling vapes to children is illegal but this has not stopped the rise in 11-to-17 year olds experimenting with vaping. In 2020 the figure was 7.7 per cent and now its 11.6 per cent, according to Action Against Smoking and Health (ASH).”

She called for better engagement with schools and parents and for the council to lobby the government and MPs to ban single-use vapes and enforce stricter controls in shops and warnings on packaging.

Cllr Gilmour (Lab, Moor View) said it took her seven attempts to give up smoking.  The science teacher said vaping in school is prevalent and children tell her it is trendy and on social media all the time.

“Children are bombarded with images with how cool it is to vape on Instagram,” she said, “One in five children are trying vaping and it’s increasing year on year. Packaging is targeting teenagers. They tell me they would like better, more solid information.

“Teenagers brains are uniquely vulnerable to addiction. Teenagers are fantastic, but they still need our help and guidance. A clear cut ban on vaping will help our teachers.

“Give our children good information and the majority of them will make good decisions.”

Councillors agreed for the health and wellbeing board to take on the issue, as it had already undertaken some work around vaping and is waiting on the government’s announcement on a possible ban.