Never start vaping, says 12-year-old girl with lung damage

Vaping is illegal for under 18s anyway isn’t it? So how was she getting hold of them

Article says she bought them from shops with no age checks.

Given that she says she started at age nine, I am at a bit of a loss with how she afforded her nasty habit.

Vaping is illegal for under 18s anyway isn’t it? So how was she getting hold of them

As someone said, shops are selling to young children, probably because they're the biggest buyers. The local newsagents by me now has a large stand like the size of a vending machine right in front of you as you walk in and it's really colourful, full of nice flavours. It's appalling to see. I stand behind Rishi bringing in legislation to stop them being made so colourful as they're appealing to children.

Vaping was initially sold as an almost harmless thing to do compared to smoking, with very little to no legislation because it's a fairly new product, so it's not surprising that it's now become an epidemic in its own right. I think vapes should be available on prescription only for long time smokers who are trying to quit smoking.

Remember that at one point in history, smoking was seen as ''completely safe'' because it hadn't been around long enough for the long-term consequences to be seen. Vaping will be similar I imagine - give it 20-30 years and we'll begin to see what years of ''safer'' vaping did.

A 12-year-old girl who suffered a lung collapse and spent four days in an induced coma has told the BBC that children should never start vaping.

Sarah Griffin had asthma and was a heavy vaper when she was rushed to hospital with breathing problems a month ago.

Her mum Mary told the BBC she feared she was going to lose her daughter.

The UK government has announced plans to restrict the marketing and sale of vapes targeted at children.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said the proposals - which are open for public consultation for the next eight weeks - would "reverse the worrying rise in youth vaping" by making vapes less colourful and less appealing to children.

Read more here.

Except it took considerably longer for people to realise smoking was dangerous, about 2000 years.
Nowadays, people know inhaling anything can be risky or cause damage. Vaping was intentionally marketed as being like 98% safer than smoking when it was first released, and it started becoming more popular in the UK in 2014 (though it definitely feels like it's become super popular in the past 2 years, at least to me). I think most people probably knew there were risks, but no-one listens unless something bad happens and now there's cases appearing to provide evidence for their argument that vaping isn't safe. I'm just surprised that the government seems to have not considered these vapes earlier and implemented legislation about them sooner.

IMO sales of vapes should be completely banned for everyone, same for cigarettes. The only way to get hold of vaping products should be an NHS prescription for people who are actively trying to end a smoking addicion. Though, I do recognise that underground sales will persist regardless and that usually becomes more of an organised crime issue.

In my school there was a y7 girl who brought alcoholic beverages and vape to school, and when our school found out, she was kicked out from school immediately. My parents always taught me never smoke or drink too much alcohol even if I grow up. I think we educate our children enough about these kind of things already, that person who sold to her should get sued.

In the school I work in there are at least 50 children that we know of who vape.

Parents are well aware. Parents usually are the ones supporting the habit and allow the child to vape at home. Or, their response is "I know, terrible isn't it?" and do nothing.

There isn't room in the care system to accommodate all these children (said for the person above who suggested these children are taken off the parents).

I see/hear a lot of people asking "how could shopkeepers sell vapes to kids?" all the time. A lot of shopkeepers feel they don't have the choice - decent income in places like tiny corner shops comes from disposable vapes. Times that by competition etc. of every other corner shop and if you don't sell you won't get the custom. This doesn't make it okay at all but I understand why in the capitalist society people stoop to that level. Money and ethics rarely correlate

.

Oddly reminded me of a shopkeeper years ago who re Fireworks would boast 'he didn't give a ****' about who he sold them to, then some of the local ferals taped a big bunch of them together and lobbed them behind his shop counter and jeez you've never heard someone complain so loudly about kids, discipline state of the UK ect just because it was HIM out of £1000s in damages, baby

Another sign of broken Britain. The tories are soft on crime and the causes of crime. Only Labour has the solutions.

There are stories that prisons are almost at capacity, so low level crimes could see a change to community service or other punishments rather than jail term.