Burning issue: Vaping can help adults quit smoking – but is it a gateway to cigarettes for kids?
![Burning issue: Vaping can help adults quit smoking – but is it a gateway to cigarettes for kids? Burning issue: Vaping can help adults quit smoking – but is it a gateway to cigarettes for kids?](/cms_media/module_img/6859/3429857_29_articlesmall_Copy_20of_20iStock-687438202_1_.jpg)
'Children who hadn’t smoked but who started vaping were three to five times more likely to smoke conventionally combustible cigarettes than children who never vaped'
To vape or not to vape?
It’s an understandable question for the almost 70% of smokers who, according to ASH Ireland, wish to quit the habit.
Vaping exposes you to about 2,000 chemicals, which seems a lot — but it’s way below the toxicant count of 7,000 chemicals in tobacco smoke.
“Vaping poses a small fraction of the health risks of smoking,” says a spokesperson for the Nicotine Research Group, King’s College London.
The New Nicotine Alliance Ireland aims to “promote mature discussion on the potential of safer nicotine products to reduce harms from smoking”.
Damian Sweeney of NNA Ireland says: “Vaping [unlike conventional smoking] doesn’t involve combustion, and any potentially harmful products are vastly reduced compared to smoking.”
NNA Ireland’s website says: it “accepts funding donated by private individuals and organisations. We do not accept donations from the tobacco industry, the electronic cigarette industry or manufacturers/distributors of other nicotine products.”
![Mark Murphy Mark Murphy](https://www.irishexaminer.com/cms_media/module_img/6859/3429845_41_articleinline_Mark_2bMurphy_2b2023.jpeg)
![Dr Paul Kavanagh Dr Paul Kavanagh](https://www.irishexaminer.com/cms_media/module_img/6859/3429848_39_articleinline_Dr_Patrick_Kavanagh.jpg)
“If a child starts smoking early, it’s incredibly harmful to their health. If they start in adolescence, they’re likely to become very firmly addicted and being a lifetime smoker,” he warns.
The Government’s Tobacco Free Ireland 2025 strategy aims to reduce prevalence of smoking to five percent or less by 2025. However, the decline in smoking rates among the general population and teens has stalled and reversed in the past few years.
For the first time in 25 years smoking among 15–16-year-olds has increased. The rate was 41% in 1995, fell to 13.1% in 2015 and has now increased to 14.4%.
The Tobacco 21 Alliance is calling for the legal age of sale of all forms of tobacco, and e-cigarettes, to be increased from 18 to 21, as evidence shows it reduces youth smoking and deters initiation.
![Dr Garrett McGovern Dr Garrett McGovern](https://www.irishexaminer.com/cms_media/module_img/6859/3429740_46_articleinline_Dr_Garrett_McGovern.jpg)
- HSE Quit Programme is easy to access, with no waiting list, and is free. Phone 1800 201 203