Urgent Call To Action As Adolescent Vaping Rates Soar In South Africa

As South Africa grapples with a public health challenge that could develop into a national crisis, researchers from the University of Cape Town UCT are raising concerns over the skyrocketing rates of vaping among adolescents, Cape town Etc reports.

They are urging the government to urgently enact the Tobacco Products Electronic Delivery Systems Control Bill, which aims to regulate vaping products and protect youth from the clutches of nicotine addiction.

This call to action follows a groundbreaking study the largest of its kind in South Africa conducted by UCT in collaboration with Utrecht University in the Netherlands.

The findings, recently published in The Lancet's eClinical Medicine, surveyed 25,000 students across 52 fee-paying high schools nationwide, shedding light on the astonishing prevalence, underlying motivations, and addiction-related behaviours linked to teen vaping.

Co-author of the study and member of UCT's Research Unit on the Economics of Exercisable Products, Samantha Filby remarked that, In South Africa, where notable progress has been made in tobacco control, the rapid increase in vaping among adolescents poses a new public health challenge.