Youth vaping addiction: Bay of Plenty families of teen vapers share ‘heartbreaking stories’

A teen who vaped six times an hour and once went “berserk” and passed out when it was taken from him. A mum who says her son’s vaping “ripped” the family apart and left him looking “like death”. A 10-year-old who used birthday money to order an e-cigarette online and became addicted. As concerns about Kiwi youth vaping habits rise, reporter Michaela Pointon speaks to three Bay of Plenty families impacted by teen addiction about getting hooked and the battle to quit.

Reuben Church was offered his first vape at intermediate school. At age 13, he began a nearly four-year addiction that, at its height, had him drawing on his 60mg nicotine vape up to six times an hour.

Any flavour of vape juice would do, though some made him want to vomit. He developed swollen gums and shadows of decay on his teeth, and found it “hard to breathe”.

Now 17, the Tauranga skateboarder has not vaped in five and a half months. Alongside his parents, Karen and Jon Church, he is sharing his experience to warn other young people about the dangers of vaping addiction.

Reuben said it was the realisation that he needed healthy lungs to continue skateboarding that finally made him kick the habit.

“You need a bigger reason to quit,” he said.

Nicotine patches and nicotine chewing gum did not work for him and made him feel sick.

His mum bought him vapes of 50mg and 30mg to try to wean him off vaping.

Karen said Reuben used vaping as a calming mechanism but when he was vaping he was “ratty”, high-strung and moody, often searching for his vape.

“He just changed a whole lot.

“He would flip out and you wouldn’t know when it had hit him.”

She said one time he passed out when the vape was taken from him. “He was screaming and yelling and going berserk. Then he passed out because he’d been having such high dosages of it.”

Despite this, the family found going “cold turkey” was the only option for Reuben.

She said other young people vaping around him made quitting hard.

“They just seem to be able to get access to it all the time. The amount of his friends that were vaping was ridiculous.”

Karen was also concerned about the number of Specialist Vape Retailers around and how store fit-outs were often “flashy and coloured”.

Karen, Reuben, 17, and John Church want other young people to avoid getting addicted to vaping. Photo / Alex Cairns

Reuben’s father Jon said vaping was something youth were “trapped into”.

“It doesn’t seem yucky-smelling like smoking, [more like] lollies. I think it’s so addictive these kids [start] chasing after it.”

Jon said parents needed to approach the issue by getting alongside their teenagers and not by “attacking” them.

”It’s better to have things in the light.”

’He looked like death’

A Bay of Plenty mother said her 15-year-old son’s vaping “ripped our family apart”.

The mum, who spoke on the condition she was not named, said she and her husband were “not on the same page” about disciplining their son over his vaping.

The family also grappled with questions about the unknown side effects of long-term vaping, their son’s health and his lying.

She blamed the nicotine in the vapes for her son’s moodiness, bad chest cough, patches of dry skin and “gaunt” face with “big black bags under his eyes constantly”.

“He looked like death.”

She described him as argumentative, unmotivated and always wanting to sleep.

He used a sweet watermelon nicotine vape for around eight months but she was unsure how much nicotine was in it.

She said she realised he was vaping when her sense of smell heightened during pregnancy and she smelled vape juice on his clothing, then found a vape in his schoolbag from one of his friends.

“Every time he went out he would come back stinking of vape. I realised I was pregnant because I was vomiting from the smell.”

The son admitted to his mum he was addicted to vaping but said it was “just a phase”, while some kids in his friend group were “totally hooked” and given vapes by family members.

He said he had been getting free vape pods from other students at school. “They all share vapes”.

She believed her son enjoyed the “little buzz” from the nicotine.

He quit vaping after seeing the division between his parents his addiction caused. Having younger siblings and playing sport at a high level were other incentives.

“He could see how genuinely crappy he was feeling,” his mum said.

Parents of teenagers addicted nicotine vapes are concerned. Photo / NZME

Parents don’t ‘realise their kids are doing it’

Another Bay of Plenty mother said one of her two sons first bought a vape when he was aged 10, by using birthday money to buy a gift card and ordering a vape to be delivered to their home from an online store.

Now 15, she said her son was “addicted” to a 50mg nicotine vape but did not use it every day. She said he preferred higher-strength vapes because they “give you the spins”.

The mother, who also did not want to be named, described noticing small, round stains on his hoodies and T-shirts from “hoons” — created by placing a vape against a piece of clothing material before inhaling to stop some vapour from entering the lungs.

“I don’t think parents realise their kids are doing it. Once you have the device you can buy juice at school [from other children].”

She said all it took was one child having access to vape juice from their parents for it to then be shared among peers.

In May, Marnie Wilton founded the VapeFree Kids NZ Facebook page with half a dozen other mums increasingly concerned about youth vaping.

The mum of two boys, aged 9 and 11, said group numbers had rapidly grown to more than 1100, with parents across New Zealand sharing their concerns and experiences.

“[There are] a lot of heartbreaking stories from parents about how vaping has affected their kids and families,” she said.

Wilton said parents often felt shameful and embarrassed, fearing their child was young and “addicted to a drug already”.

She said the group believed Minister of Health Ayesha Verrall’s announcement last week of measures aimed at curbing harmful teen vaping did not go far enough.

Changes included banning disposable vapes, changing vape product names and banning new Specialist Vape Retailer stores from opening near schools and marae.

“We hope the Government will start listening and protecting our kids. How many more of our kids have to become addicted to vaping before our government takes [stronger] action?”

She said VapeFree Kids want a “nicotine-free” future for their kids.

‘No one knows the long-term effects’

The Ministry of Health’s position statement on vaping said it was much less harmful than smoking, and could help people quit cigarettes, but was not harmless.

“A range of toxicants have been found in vapour including some cancer-causing agents but, in general, at levels much lower than found in cigarette smoke or at levels that are unlikely to cause harm ... Vaping products release negligible levels of nicotine and other toxicants into ambient air with no identified health risks to bystanders.”

Responding to parent comments, a ministry spokesperson said it was a “complex issue”.

“We are committed to identifying meaningful, relevant solutions to enable young people to live vape-free lives. Vaping is not intended for young people or non-smokers.”

Vaping laws aimed to strike a balance between preventing the uptake among children and young people, and supporting smokers to switch to a less harmful product.

The response said Action for Smokefree data found the daily vaping rate for 14- to 15-year-olds rose to 10.1 per cent in 2022 from 9.6 per cent in 2021.

“The Government will continue to monitor the uptake of vaping, including among young people and non-smokers, and adjust its regulatory settings.”

University of Auckland Bioengineering Institute Associate Professor Dr Kelly Burrowes’ research includes developing new methods for understanding lung function, as well as changes that occur due to exposure to vapes (e-cigarettes).

She said a vape device usually contains a battery, a container of e-liquid and a metal or ceramic heating coil which is activated when the vape is turned on from sucking the device.

Most vape devices have a battery, a container of e-liquid and a metal or ceramic heating coil. Photo / Bevan Conley

“A battery goes on and heats a heating coil to 200 or 300 degrees Celsius. Contact with the [vape juice] liquid is what turns the liquid to aerosol.”

Burrowes said during the heating process small metal particles sometimes break down into chemicals such as formaldehyde which could enter the lungs - albeit in much lower concentrations compared to cigarettes.

Burrowes was concerned about the range of vape flavours available on the market, with one study estimating there were around 8000 worldwide.

She said some flavours used chemicals that could be concerning, such as Cinnamaldehyde (cinnamon) or Vanillin (vanilla). Pre-Covid, 2000 hospitalisations in the US were linked to Vitamin E in a cannabis-flavoured vape.

She said vape flavour chemicals were grown on cells in laboratories, as well as via animal testing research. Burrowes said a long-term human study was needed to know the impact of vaping on human health.

Burrowes said people who smoked in their teens may not show signs of harm until sometimes approaching their 50s or later.

She said “no one knows the long-term effects” of vaping.

“[There] probably will be harm, we don’t know what it is yet.”

Lumino Dentists NZ general manager Phillip Worsley said the current evidence suggested vaping had a negative impact on oral health, with case studies showing impacts on gum diseases and increased dental decay.

There were currently longitudinal studies aiming to properly quantify the long-term effects.

“In addition, the effect of second and third-hand vape aerosol containing nicotine and cancer-causing agents on whānau is not yet fully understood.”

Michaela Pointon is an NZME reporter based in the Bay of Plenty and was formerly a feature writer.