A quarter of children between 12 and 17-years-old in York have tried vaping, new figures reveal.
The School Health and Wellbeing Survey, commissioned by City of York Council, heard from almost 3,000 children about smoking and vaping habits.
A report to the health, housing and adult social care scrutiny committee says: “In 2023 a quarter of children and young people in York aged 12-17 years had tried vaping, up from around a fifth in 2021.
“The majority report experimentation having only tried an e-cigarette once or twice (9%) and 3% report using e-cigarettes every day. There are no noticeable differences between boys and girls.
“Most primary school children say that they have never used an e- cigarette (71%) or heard of e-cigarettes (19%). None reported using e-cigarettes every day.
“Around a quarter of young people aged 12-17 years said that they ‘don’t know why’ they vape and 32% said that they use/used an e-cigarette ‘just give it a try’. ‘I like the flavours’ was the reason given by 11% of young people in York.”
Peter Roderick, the council’s director of public health, said: “Smoking is one of the biggest causes of death and illness in the UK.
“Vaping is significantly less harmful than smoking and is a safe and effective way to support smokers to quit.
“Therefore we see vaping as a tool to support smokers to quit, due to the vastly reduced risks.
“At the same time, it should not be promoted to anyone who currently does not smoke, especially children and young people.”
On Tuesday, MPs voted to ban anyone born after 2009 from buying cigarettes to create a “smoke-free generation”.
The health, housing and adult social care scrutiny committee will discuss the report on Tuesday (23 April).