Vaping: Heightened risks for young people

With the new academic year approaching vaping, and its dangers for young people, remains a concern for school leaders.

Last year a survey of 4000 teachers in the UK conducted for the teachers’ union, the NASUWT, which was published in October found 85% of teachers believe vaping is a problem on school premises. Over half (54%) of teachers reported that some pupils repeatedly leave lessons in order to vape, while a third (35%) report that some pupils are struggling to concentrate in lessons due to the effects of nicotine.

Concerns about vapes laced with spice

However, along with these concerns this year there have been warnings about the dangers of vapes that contain the dangerous addictive synthetic street drug, spice. An investigation carried put by a team at the University of Bath found that 1 in 6 (16.6%) of 596 vapes confiscated in 38 schools across England contained the synthetic street drug, spice.

Overall, the tests of the vapes discovered spice in 28 out of 38 (74%) schools across London, the West Midlands, Greater Manchester, and South Yorkshire. Roughly 1 in 100 (1.17%) contained THC, the psychoactive component of cannabis.

Chris Pudney, Professor of Applied Biochemistry at Bath, led the research using the world’s first portable device that instantly detects synthetic drugs developed by his inter-disciplinary team.

Talking on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme last month Professor Pudney said they wanted to test the technology within schools and “were incredibly shocked to find how much spice there was.”

At first, they thought their results might be an anomaly but by testing across more schools, across different regions, they showed that “it is everywhere” and in “every social strata”.

“I can’t believe it’s found its home in that niche in the school system,” Professor Pudney said.

He believes that now vaping is so common among young people there are some teenagers that want to experiment with cannabis. However, when they think they are being sold a THC vape they are actually buying one laced with spice. However, THC is very expensive, while spice is cheap. Both are illegal in the UK, however THC vapes are legal in the USA.

Dangerous side effects of spice

Spice can cause a wide range of dangerous side effects, including cardiac arrest, and is a high cause of death within prisons. Professor Pudney, said: “We know children can have cardiac arrests when they smoke spice, and I believe some have come quite close to death. Headteachers are telling me pupils are collapsing in the halls and ending up with long stays in intensive care.”

Ben Davis, Headteacher at St Ambrose Barlow RC High School in Salford, one of the schools that had its confiscated vapes tested in July, said: “We’ve had specific instances of young people under the influence of spice. I recall one young man describing how his hands felt like cartoon hands. He couldn’t control them and they felt like they didn’t belong to him. We’ve also witnessed two children collapsing.”

He added: “My message to families is, don’t assume your child is not involved. There’s a high chance they are, or they know someone who is. Please talk to them about it. Be open, non-judgmental, and accepting. As soon as you judge or blame, barriers will go up, and you won’t reach your child. This conversation is crucial for their safety.”

Following the original Today programme interview, a college principal from London reported the problems he had seen among his students related to spice. Subsequently a teenager was interviewed who said he had become addicted to spice vapes and he said he vaped them at school, including in class.

Supporting schools to tackle vaping

There are now a range of vape detectors available that, when combined with trained staff and policies outlining what pupils can expect if they are caught vaping, can support schools to tackle the problem. Most of the vaping in schools takes place within school toilets and this is where the devices are placed.

The device offered by Ecl-ips is the HALO Smart Sensor, which detects vaping as well as THC, whether that is smoked or vaped. Our latest case study from Silverdale School in Sheffield reveals that they had detected THC and this had ultimately led to the exclusion of one of their pupils.

The HALO offer detects smoke and has the ability to detect all features of vapes, including heat not burn and can detect smaller airborne particulate matter (a mix of particles and droplets in the air) than many rival sensors. Additionally, it will pick up if vaping is being masked, for example by spraying aerosols.

Notifications of vaping are received by email within seconds but schools report they use CCTV in conjunction with the devices so they can track perpetrators more easily if they do not catch them within the act.

Ecl-ips can supply the vape detectors across the UK. If you would like to know more about the benefits then please contact us.