The number of electronic cigarette users in Ireland is on the rise, and new research indicates that the average age of young people starting to use e-cigarettes is between 13 and 15 years old.
Katelyn Benson, a writer for the youth information website SpunOut, has reported that the youngest e-cigarette user she has heard of was just an eight-year-old child. "They would just go into the bathroom, puff on their e-cigarette, and blow out the smoke, then come out and the teachers wouldn't know because there's really no smell," she explained. "A lot of e-cigarettes are disposable, so after you've used a certain amount of puffs, you can just throw them away, which means a lot of these young people can actually do it secretly without their parents knowing," she added.
According to Ms. Benson, electronic cigarettes taste similar to candy and are not as expensive as a standard pack of cigarettes. Electronic cigarettes also have very colorful packaging. Research conducted by the Irish Tobacco Free Research Institute in secondary schools shows that the percentage of teenagers who use electronic cigarettes has increased from 23% in 2014 to 39% in 2019.
Luke Clancy, the director of the research institute, stated that the main reasons given by these teenagers were curiosity and their peers smoking. "The era of Irish teenagers smoking has been reversed, and we believe that e-cigarettes could have a significant impact in this regard," he said.
In a recent survey, nearly 70% of teenagers reported that they had never used tobacco products before trying electronic cigarettes. According to Professor Kranz, electronic cigarettes pose many potential dangers for young people.
No matter the intensity, the developing brain - which is still immature - will suffer from the detrimental effects of nicotine. Nicotine directly affects the brain and can have harmful consequences," he said.
The solution he proposed to address the issue of electronic cigarettes among teenagers includes age restrictions and public education on the potential risks associated with e-cigarette products.
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