UK Government Launches £62M Study into Youth Vaping

The £62 million research project into adolescent health, funded by UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), will track 100,000 young people aged 8-18 years over a decade, collecting data on behaviour, biology and health records to understand what affects young people’s health and wellbeing, including the impact of vaping.

Without a strong evidence base, there may be a temptation to default to measures such as flavour bans that don’t directly address issues around youth access but may instead discourage adult smokers from switching.

In other jurisdictions, flavour bans have led to increased smoking.

At the same time, the government is rolling out its first-ever nationwide campaign to discourage youth vaping. 

The Love Your Lungs campaign is aimed at 13- to 18-year-olds, and will roll out primarily on social media, using influencers to speak directly to its younger audience.

“From our perspective at Haypp, the first ever public health campaign to discourage youth vaping is a welcome step, but we must remember that vapes are already an adult only product. We also need clear information about vapes from government to adult smokers. Half the adults in the UK already believe vapes to be as harmful or more harmful than cigarettes, and this type of misinformation needs to be countered to encourage adult smokers to switch to less harmful vapes,” concluded Marina.

As a responsible retailer, Haypp supports all efforts to tackle youth vaping, but we must be careful not to throw the baby out with the bathwater with clumsy regulation.