What you need to know about vaping as a Christian parent

Parents who took part in a survey about vaping conducted by Hope UK at this summer’s New Wine festival, shared their concerns about their lack of knowledge, saying they would like their churches to provide more support to young people to raise awareness of the risks of vaping.

It’s an issue that’s frequently in our media headlines. At the start of this new school year, secondary head teachers across the UK spoke out about the measures they were having to take to prevent students from vaping in school. Medical experts have raised their concerns about young people who have become addicted to nicotine. In response to urgent calls for action, the UK government is currently looking at ways of restricting marketing, access and use by children, with a possible ban on single-use vapes in the pipeline.

So how bad is the situation with young people and vaping? The good news is that the majority of teenagers in the UK are not vaping – however, all the statistics paint a worrying picture, clearly showing that trends are going in the wrong direction. Since 2021 the proportion of children currently vaping has been greater than those currently smoking - 7.6% compared to 3.6% and nearly half of all young people who try vaping are non-smokers. [Action on Smoking and Health report 2023] ONS data published last month shows that those aged 16-24 are now the highest consumers of vapes, with over 1 in 10 vaping daily or occasionally.