- Nicotine vapes can help adult smokers to stop smoking.
- Smoking causes disease and early death.
- Vaping is not as harmful as smoking because you don’t inhale toxic tar and carbon monoxide.
- But, vapes are not harmless. Short-term effects include coughing, dizziness, and sore throats. Long-term effects are unknown.
- Most children and young people don’t vape or smoke.
- Disposable vapes have batteries inside them. These are harmful to the environment as many end up in landfills.
Don’t smoke? Don’t start to vape.
Information for parents and carers
Vapes containing nicotine are age-restricted products: it is illegal to sell them to under 18’s and for adults to buy them on their behalf.
OUR ADVICE TO CHILDREN AND YOUNG PEOPLE IS: DON’T SMOKE? DON’T START TO VAPE.
If you are aware of a shop selling vapes to children and young people please report to: https://www.hull.gov.uk/crime-and-safety/consumer-advice/illegal-sales-young-people
HAVING CONVERSATIONS WITH
YOUR CHILD ABOUT VAPING?
Find the right moment when you see someone vaping, walk past a vape shop or see advertisements.
Ask questions – What do they think about vaping? Do they know people who vape? Why do they think people vape?
Listen to them, learn from them, but help them understand the facts you have learned. Teach them that vapes are not harmless.
Tell them what you expect from them. Explain your concerns and tell them why you don’t want them to vape or smoke. Tell them that neither are safe, but vaping is less harmful.
Let them know you care about them. Explain that if a person sells you a vape, and they know you are under 18, they are only interested in making money. They don’t care who they sell to.
Talk about the different reasons children vape i.e. wanting to fit in, curiosity or stress. Talk about ways they can manage being pressured to vape, try acting out the situation as practice.
If your child is vaping talk to them to find out why they vape. Ask them what they enjoy about it and how it makes them feel. Knowing this might help you to understand their needs and discuss other ways to meet those needs.
For more information about vaping, read the leaflet below
Download Vaping LeafletDisposal of Vapes
Vapes should not be put in any of the household waste bins or public bins as the batteries are a fire risk. Vapes should be returned to the shop where purchased if they have a collection service or taken to a Household Waste Recycling Centre. Find your nearest centre here Centres | Household waste recycling centres | Hull
Toolkits and downloadable resources
Below there are links to various tools and resources that will be useful to anyone wanting to find out more about vaping but particularly useful if you work with children and young people, are from a school, college or are a safeguarding lead.
Posters to download which can be displayed where children and young people will see them
PowerPoint slides ready for use by teachers in the classroom
A more detailed slide set for teachers; providing additional information to support educators in answering questions and signposting to additional support
An electronic leaflet designed for parents and carers giving more information about smoking and vaping
Brief animation that can be sent out to parents or put on your own website or social media
Summary report of the Hull and East Riding of Yorkshire vaping survey 2022
OHID resource for schools on vaping
The Office for Health Improvement and Disparities (OHID) is producing a new resource pack for schools on vaping, aimed at Years 7 and 8. The resources, to be published on the Better Health School Zone
The pack will include three flexible bitesize sessions, which can be:
- used as a standalone session to meet the learning needs of individual classes
- used together over a few sessions to build and develop deeper understanding around vaping
- used in form time or assemblies.
- embedded in pre-existing lesson content around smoking.
The three topic areas are:
- Vaping: What and Why? – explore what students already know about vaping – and then present the facts, get them thinking about why young people vape, and helping with strategies for saying “no” if pressured by others to start. There will also be signposts to sources of support if young people are worried (e.g. school nurse, Talk to Frank, Childline)
- Vaping: the impacts – in which we explore things like potential health impacts, environmental impacts, financial impacts, etc
- Vaping: nicotine – more of a deep dive on the effects of nicotine including signs of addiction