What does NRC think | The ‘smoke -free generation’ must also be a vapevij generation

It was a good step to ban sweet flavors in Vapes at the beginning of last year. Bubblegum, cola or cherry flavor in the Vape’s liquid- clearly intended to seduce young people and teenagers- is no longer allowed. Since then, the vape has to taste for what he is in fact: tobacco, or a nicotine carrier.

And yet Vapes are still popular with young people. So they are so addictive: without legally available tasty flavors Vapete in 2024 9 percent of 18 to 25-year-olds. And another 23.7 percent smoked cigarettes. A year earlier, in 2023, Vapete a quarter of that age group – so perhaps 16 percent have actually been brought to the tobacco flavor. Whether this also applies to the teenagers has not yet been investigated: it is only known that in 2023 almost 10 percent of teenagers monthly Vapete, 2 percent daily and a quarter ‘sometimes’.

Sales to minors is forbidden, but teenagers say they buy vapes (and cigarettes) through older friends, via social media such as Snapchat and Tiktok and in some tobacco issues that ignore the rules. They still buy vapes with flavors just across the border.

This week a number of doctors announced that they would take legal steps against Snapchat if the social media platform not within two weeks children will protect For all Vape-related content.

Europe must draw up stricter rules for marketing and sale of vapes and cigarettes, written twelve European ministers responsible for prevention and youthincluding outgoing State Secretary Vincent Karremans (VVD), to the European Commission at the end of March. According to them, social media platforms must take responsibility for such content by « actively removing and preventing it from being uploaded on their channels ». Governments should also monitor that.

Whether Vapes do just as much damage as cigarettes in the long term has not been proven because they have only been on the market since 2003. They were initially sold as a safe alternative to the cigarette, but that fairy tale has long been punctured. It is certain that, unlike cigarettes, they can cause acute problems: last year at least fourteen children in the Netherlands ended up in the hospital with a blow lung or lung bleeding after vapen, according to figures from the Dutch Association for Pediatrics.

Also Doctors warned Last year that more toxic and addictive nicotine comes from a lot of Vapes than from a whole pack of cigarettes. They called on parents to realize that Nicotine irreparably limited the development of brain in teenagers and that vaping young people are going to smoke cigarettes three times as quickly as non-Vapers. Addicted adult smokers is again known that two -thirds started as a teenager.

A smoke -free generation, the government striving for never smoking all young people born from 2017, may therefore also be called a vapevij generation. According to the inventors, that smoke -free generation should exist in 2035. For this, the government and the European Commission must maintain stricter on trade, marketing and clandestine sale.

The age at which you can buy cigarettes and vapes may also be increased to, for example, 21 years. In England and New Zealand, rehab clinics for vape and tobacco addiction have now been set up. That could also be in the Netherlands.

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