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Vapes Recruiting New Generation Of Young Smokers

Monday, 25 September 2023 16:16

The dangers of vaping are being highlighted by a respiratory physician on World Lung Day.

Flavoured vapes are recruiting a new generation of smokers in young people. 

That's the opinion of Consultant Respiratory Physician at the Midlands Regional Hospital Mullingar, Doctor Mark Sheehy. 

Today marks World Lung Day, where people are being encouraged to take care of their lungs through diet, exercise and avoiding smoking and vaping. 

Doctor Sheehy says if teenagers or children vape, they have a 5 to 7 times increased risk of taking up smoking cigarettes:

Figures show 100 people dying each week as a result of smoking, and over 1,400 premature deaths in Ireland each year due to air pollution.

Lung disease incorporates a wide range of respiratory illnesses with the most prominent being asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), and lung cancer, but also includes sleep apnoea, cystic fibrosis, lung fibrosis, tuberculosis and Alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency.

Ireland has one of the highest rates of asthma in the world with approximately 450,000 people believed to have doctor-diagnosed asthma of whom more than half are thought to have uncontrolled asthma.

It is estimated that there are 380,000 people in Ireland living with COPD, yet less than a third of these have been formally diagnosed with at least 1,500 people dying each year from the disease.

According to the National Cancer Registry, lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death in both sexes, with an average of 1,916 deaths per year or 19% of cancer deaths in women and 21% of cancer deaths in men between 2016 and 2018.

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