"Vaping poison put children at risk" - Reality check
NHS National Poisons Information Service report for 2014/15 includes eLiquids.
-
by Dave Cross
Share on:
Last year, The Guardian reported that the NPIS recorded 29 calls to health professionals regarding eliquids containing nicotine in 2012. The previous five years combined came to just 36 calls. As the popularity of vaping grew there were 139 calls in 2012/2013 – of which 42 referred to children of which 4 needed to be admitted to hospital.
At the time, John Thompson (NPIS’ service director) said: "E-cigarette usage has increased significantly in recent years. The liquid found in e-cigarettes can be very harmful and I would urge anyone who uses e-cigarettes to make sure that the liquids are stored safely, and in particular away from children."
Was his warning heeded by the British vaping community? Not if the headline in this week’s Sunday Times is anything to go by. The Murdoch media have been resolutely anti-vaping through both their print and television outlets so it was unsurprising to see them holler Vaping poison put children at risk.
In 2013/2014 there were 204 calls. The NPIS 2014/15 report states that calls to medical professionals has risen 18% to 241.
The figure breaks down as follows: “A quarter of these involved children under five years and, overall, 85% of exposures were accidental. Of fifteen reported cases of eye contact, nine occurred when the liquid was mistaken for eye drops and conjunctivitis was the predominant feature. Of all patients exposed, most (133) had no features of toxicity, but there were seven patients with moderate toxicity and one with severe toxicity.”
Contrary to the fear being hyped by The Sunday Telegraph, “people accidentally gave themselves potentially huge overdoses of pure nicotine, an NHS report has warned”, total hospitalisations numbered just 8. Considering the exponential growth in the use of electronic cigarettes over the last couple of years, now estimated at 2.8 Million users, the eight incidents actually translates to a real-term drop in accident rates.
The report is sixty pages long, it covers all aspects of poisoning in the UK – it beggars belief that Murdoch’s science hack would devote an entire article to what boils down to one solitary serious vape case. Page 41 of the report highlights how more calls were made and more people suffered from the swallowing of automatic dishwasher tablets! Likewise, there were more calls for help regarding household air fresheners than ecig juices – less than a quarter of pesticide exposure calls.
NPIS say: “Urgent consideration needs to be given to the safe storage and packaging of these products. To address some of these concerns, packaging and labeling regulations are currently being developed under the European Tobacco Products Directive for implementation in 2016.”
But regardless of the media guff, the storage and use of liquids should be a primary concern for vapers in order to protect family members and pets, particularly cats. Sealed containers should be used to store bottles of liquids, spills should be cleaned up straight away and only buy bottles with child safety caps.
Dave Cross
Journalist at POTVDave is a freelance writer; with articles on music, motorbikes, football, pop-science, vaping and tobacco harm reduction in Sounds, Melody Maker, UBG, AWoL, Bike, When Saturday Comes, Vape News Magazine, and syndicated across the Johnston Press group. He was published in an anthology of “Greatest Football Writing”, but still believes this was a mistake. Dave contributes sketches to comedy shows and used to co-host a radio sketch show. He’s worked with numerous vape companies to develop content for their websites.
Join the discussion
Trading Standards Welcomes Clarity
The Chartered Trading Standards Institute says it welcomes the “clarity and action from government to tackle youth vaping” with the plan to ban disposable vapes and related announcements
-
by Dave Cross
UKVIA Writes To Sunak
The UKVIA has sent a letter to Prime Minister Rishi Sunak to 'express profound dismay and disappointment' that the government has decided to proceed with a ban on disposable vapes
-
by Dave Cross
FOI Shows Disposables Ban Folly
389 Freedom of Information requests made by leading online retailer Vape Club and one by the BBC demonstrate the extent to which a ban on disposable vapes is a complete act of folly
-
by Dave Cross
ASH UK’s Coordinated Comment
Action on Smoking and Health has coordinated a series of responses to the Governments proposals to include interested parties
-
by Dave Cross
