A doctor has given a warning to parents over primary school-aged children ending up in hospital due to complications from excessive vaping.
Figures from NHS England and a Sky News investigation found that 15 children aged nine and under became so ill from vaping that they had to go to hospital from the beginning of the year to April. Last year, 12 children under nine went to hospital. Just two children became admitted in 2021. A paediatric chest physician told Sky News that he feels “absolutely horrified” by the statistics.
Doctor warns of ‘lung collapse’ in vaping children
Professor Andy Bush, a paediatric chest physician at the Royal Brompton Hospital warned that children are being “exposed to the toxic substances of addiction”. He explained that some of the “toxicity” is not known. The professor confessed that “we just don’t know” what is in a lot of these vapes. He added there are major health risks if children are using e-cigarettes so excessively that they end up in the hospital.
The physician added: “The acute use of e-cigarettes can put them in hospital, can put them in intensive care. Things like lung bleeding, lung collapse and air leak, the lungs filling up with fat.” Vaping began as a way to help heavy adult smokers to stop using cigarettes. But many young people are beginning to vape without ever smoking cigarettes beforehand.
It’s illegal to sell vapes to under-18s and the boxes are clearly labelled. But with sweet flavours and colourful designs, many e-cigarette brands have faced criticism for ‘appealing to children’. In total, 40 young people aged up to 19 went to hospital in the past year from vaping.
Mum’s warning after losing her daughter to a lung collapse
A mum also told Sky News that she blames vaping for the death of her 18-year-old daughter, who died in February 2015, six months after she began vaping heavily.
The young girl left her workplace and collapsed, having a heart attack. A sudden collapse of both her lungs caused the heart attack. Her brain had become starved of oxygen. Two days later, she died. The girl went to the doctors multiple times with chest pain, but as an active footballer, the pain was put down to a pulled muscle.
The acute use of e-cigarettes can put them in hospital, can put them in intensive care.
But her mum found “bottles and bottles” of vaping liquid, and while no official link was made, doctors agree with the girl’s mum that vaping was likely to blame. Professor Andy Bush added: “I cannot think of any other explanation that would cover the facts.”
John Dunne from the UK Vaping Industry Association is calling for the government to announce on-the-spot fines of £10,000 for anyone caught selling vapes to children.
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