Newcastle City Council calls for vaping restrictions

Newcastle City Council has urged the government to impose new vaping restrictions

Children in the North East need to be protected from a "ticking time bomb" and stop using vapes, councillors have said.

Newcastle City Council echoed calls on the government to impose new restrictions on vapes.

Plain packaging and a ban on free samples were among the measures suggested.

Freeman Hospital consultant Wendy Taylor said vapes were advertised by using "cartoons".

Ms Taylor, also a Liberal Democrat councillor in the city, said minors were lured in with "pocket money prices and bright colours, different flavours".

It comes as the Local Government Association says 1.3 million vapes are thrown away each week and wants them banned by 2024.

The Local Democracy Reporting Service said figures showed nearly 100,000 children in the North East had tried vaping,

"Children become addicted to nicotine much faster than adults and we don't know the long-term effects of vaping," Ms Taylor said.

"There's also the problem that many of the products on sale in the UK are illicit and may contain banned chemicals or super-strength nicotine."

Despite being used as a tool to help adults stop smoking, some vaping products have been found with unsafe levels of "toxic" chemicals.

A full council meeting with city politicians heard the health risks "associated with vaping are becoming increasingly apparent".

Labour's deputy council leader, Karen Kilgour, said vapes "could seriously damage children's health" and warned that the city's minors were "being exposed to a ticking time bomb".

The council recently forced the closure of three shops in Byker after officers found vapes being sold to children, some aged 10.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak earlier this year said he would stop free samples being handed to minors.

"The marketing and the illegal sales of vapes to children is completely unacceptable and I will do everything in my power to end this practice for good," he said.