Vaping was sold as a way to stop smoking. Instead it’s getting teenagers addicted to nicotine, and Scotland is following Australia in calling out teen vaping as a top-tier public health issue. Yesterday the BBC revealed that traces of toxic metals including lead, nickel and chromium had been found in vapes being used by schoolchildren in Kidderminster. This morning Edinburgh University’s Professor Linda Bauld called for tougher rules on vape branding to make it less appealing to young people. Bauld didn’t advocate a blanket ban, and a report in the Sydney Morning Herald today suggests it wouldn’t work. Australian efforts to ban all vape imports are catching only a quarter of them while the remaining three quarters fuel a “rampant” – and unregulated – black market.
