The aerosol from vaping products is not water vapour. The ingredients in vapes are chemicals such as:

• acetone- found in nail polish remover
• acrolein- found in weed killer
• chlorophenol- found in bug spray.

These ingredients aren’t always labelled on the packaging. Some vaping products contain over 200 chemicals, many known to be harmful to health.

Even though vapes comes in appealing flavours and colours, most still contain highly addictive nicotine. The nicotine in one vape product can be the equivalent of 50 cigarettes.

Vapes come in many different shapes and sizes. Some look like everyday items such as highlighters or USB sticks. They are more discrete in their look and smell, making them harder to spot. Vapes have evolved in their look over the years.

• the original disposable vapes looked like a cigarette
• refillable ‘tanks’ are a lot larger- the size of a hand
• vaping products today are more commonly disposable, prefilled pods.

Unlike cigarettes, vaping products do not emit as strong an odour. From July 2024, flavours of therapeutic vapes have been restricted to:

• mint
• menthol
• tobacco.

Flavoured e-cigarettes, including watermelon and mango flavours are often imported illegally.

Young people who vape are 3 times more likely to take up smoking cigarettes.

When referring to smoking, this means products like:

• cigarettes
• cigars
• a pipe
• other products which contain tobacco.

The most common form of smoking is cigarettes.

Most people who smoke, experiment or start in their teenage years. In 2023:

• 8 in every 100 secondary school students had smoked a cigarette in the past year
• 2 in every 100 secondary school students had smoked a cigarette in the past week

Older students were significantly more likely to have reported smoking during these periods.