Talks at Cornwall schools about impact of young people using vapes

Talks to inform young people on the impact of smoking and vaping have been taking place at Cornish schools.

Healthy Cornwall are visiting primary and secondary schools across the county. At Wadebridge School, talks took place between Monday 13 January - Friday 17 January, engaging with pupils, teachers, parents and carers about the dangers of children under the age of 18 using vapes.

Nachelle Nightingale, health improvement practitioner for children and young people at Healthy Cornwall, who recently visited Wadebridge School last week, said:

"Our main message has been for them to know that vapes are not for young people under 18 and those who don't smoke, shouldn't vape.

"Those who don't smoke, shouldn't vape"

"We've worked individually with students from years 8 - 11 and we've done an assembly with all of year 11. We've been working with Wadebridge school to give students accurate information on tobacco and vape use, to help them explore how to manage difficult emotions and nicotine addiction, help them understand how vape producers might be manipulating young people and also to raise awareness of the environmental impact."

It comes ahead of the Tobacco and Vapes Bill passing through parliament, which will see single use and disposable vapes banned and includes plans to phase out the sale of tobacco to anyone born after 1st January 2009.

Nachelle said: "It includes a ban on smoking in some outdoor spaces for example hospitals and schools. One of our pieces of work will be with schools about stopping parents smoking and vaping outside school gates."

Healthy Cornwall sits within the Public Health and Wellbeing Service of Cornwall Council and support the local community with living a healthier life, working directly with individuals through a variety of intervention services including weight management, healthy eating, stopping smoking, healthy pregnancy and being active.

They also offer training to professionals.

Nachelle added: "As we know young people don't always want to be told what to do, they want to make their own decisions and they deserve for those decisions to be well-informed.

"Decisions to be well-informed"

"Vaping can be a very helpful tool for adults to quit smoking in the short to medium term. We know smoking is still the biggest cause of preventable death and disease. We really want to make young people aware it could affect their brain development, it could affect their organs."

You can find more information about Healthy Cornwall on their website.

There's details about their SmokeFree support here.

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