E-cigarette ban for under-18s will it make a difference?

The government has banned them from teenagers – but it won’t make much difference says a leading smoking analysis group.

However Public Health Minister Jane Ellison said catching potential smokers when they are young is crucial.

“Two thirds of smokers say they smoked regularly before they were 18, showing that this is an addiction largely taken up in childhood,” she said.

Adults caught buying cigarettes for children could be given a £50 fixed penalty notice or fined up to £2,500 under the new law. Both bans will come into effect in the autumn, MPs hope.

Do teens smoke e-cigs?

Currently there is no restriction on people under the age of 18 buying e-cigarettes, but opinions vary on whether the ban will change things.

Some fear that children are turning to the smokeless devices – designed to help users quit – before moving on to traditional cigarettes. Many secondary schools across the UK have banned e-cigarettes over fears they are encouraging pupils to take up smoking.

But smoking action group ASH say that it won’t make much of a difference.

“Among children regular use of e-cigarettes is extremely rare,” a 2013 report by them found. Only one in 100 16-18 year olds (and 0 per cent of 11-15 year olds) use e-cigarettes more than once a week.

And it seemed unlikely that children would consider them a gateway to real cigarettes either: “Few children expect to use an e-cigarette soon, except those who already smoke. Only 1 per cent of those who had never smoked think that they would try an e-cigarette soon.”

One thing teens do do though is get older people to buy cigarettes for them. 41 per cent of 15-year-olds who smoke say they usually buy cigarettes from other people rather than shops, and 95 per cent of 11- to 15-year-olds who smoke have managed to get someone else to buy cigarettes for them in the past year.

Unknown chemicals

E-cigarettes sales boomed last year, with an estimated 1.3 million users in the UK.

But though they are seen as safer than normal cigarettes -some fear they reinforce smoking – by giving users an intense hit of nicotine and making it harder to give up in the long term.

Another worry: the chemicals used in the product are not clearly labelled and their effects understood.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has said that users often think e-cigarettes are safer than they are: “users are not fully aware of the toxins they are inhaling.”
“The potential risks they pose for the health of users remain undetermined,” said the organisation.

“Scientific testing indicates that the products vary widely in the amount of nicotine and other chemicals they deliver and there is no way for consumers to find out what is actually delivered by the product they have purchased.”