Shocking scale of UK's child vaping epidemic revealed - with kids lured into lifetime addiction by puffing on £5 gadgets that are equivalent to smoking FORTY cigarettes and marketed to resemble sweets READ MORE: Teenage vaping addict, 17, loses part of her lung after collapsing *** Have YOU or YOUR child suffered health issues from vaping? Email: [email protected].
uk *** By Emily Stearn, Health Reporter For Mailonline Published: 13:21 EDT, 11 June 2024 | Updated: 13:26 EDT, 11 June 2024 e-mail 10 shares 24 View comments When Kyla Blight began vaping as a 15-year-old she assumed it was 'harmless'. After all, none of her friends who puffed on the gadgets — ubiquitous on the high street and sold for as little as £5 — had ever fallen ill. Yet, Kyla is now terrified of the nicotine-laden devices and has vowed never to go 'near them again' after bursting a hole in her lung puffing the equivalent of 400 cigarettes a week.
But the now 17-year-old, from Egremont in Cumbria, is not alone. Her case, which will undoubtedly alarm parents across the country, is another example of the UK's youth vaping epidemic, which experts have called 'disturbing' and demanded immediate action to stamp out. Figures show how the proportion of kids using e-cigarettes has exploded amid the decline of traditional smoking, with more than a third of 16 to 18-year-olds now regularly inhaling them.
Campaigners have long blamed predatory manufacturers for the ever-growing crisis, claiming they are .
