The Non-smokers platform considered on Monday "alarming" the viral video in which a girl appears vaping in her communion and receiving a dozen electronic cigarettes as a gift and that already accumulates more than 325,000 reproductions on social networks. In addition, he urged the Minister of Health, José Manuel Miñones, to prohibit the sale of these devices.

This was claimed in a statement in which he warned that the video "raises the debate before the lack of protection of minors and the null perception of risk of parents" and warned about the "normalization" of the use of devices susceptible to nicotine delivery among preadolescents.

With regard to the audiovisual piece, in which a minor appears who, in her opinion, "does not seem to be more than 10 years old", the president of the platform, Raquel Fernández Megina, stressed that the communion took place in Torreblanca (Seville) and that the girl "not only appears with a vape around her neck, but is also releasing smoke at the beginning of the video".

"

It has to enter our heads that vaping is smoking. The government must act now and ban this sector. It is not about ending some flavor, but about nipping this problem in the bud," she said, convinced that it is a "harmful and predatory sector, first cousin of tobacco and that will make this girl a smoker before turning fourteen."

After denouncing the "tsunami that is already going for children of communion age", he pointed out that, in the video, the boxes of the pods that the child is taking out "are all bright colors: pink, yellow, pastel tones. Almost a toy, but it comes with the warning of nicotine-containing products."

A toy

"Something that does not seem to matter to parents who give or allow that gift to their 10-year-old daughter," he added, to remember that, "in its day", Law 28/2005 on Sanitary Measures against Smoking prohibited products such as chocolate cigarettes, understanding that "they normalized the act of smoking among minors."

At this point, he wondered "what to do when the toy given by the parents themselves, probably due to ignorance, contains one of the most addictive substances that exists, such as nicotine," and said that the current legislation "has become completely obsolete" in this regard.

"Possibly, the parents of the minor think that a vape is water, as the industry makes them believe, and not an aerosol containing gases and heavy metals that can cause serious complications and side effects," said the platform, whose president considered "a myth created by the industry itself that they are 95% less harmful." She also explained that countries such as Australia are prohibiting its import and commercialization, convinced that Spain "should do the same."

After warning that what "proves" this scene is how the tobacco and nicotine industry "mercilessly preys on those most unprotected and vulnerable sectors," he said that "the State must intervene to curb their greed."

Preteen Vaping Epidemic

In this regard, he denounced that the "epidemic" of preadolescent vaping "has flourished mainly under the mandates in Health of Salvador Illa and Carolina Darias", which, according to his point of view, "have not moved a finger to regulate an addictive industry that today ravages both minors and adults who simultaneously tobacco and vaping ", and insisted on the need for the "immediate" promulgation of a Royal Decree Law that prohibits the sale and commercialization of These devices, "without distinction of flavors or load or not of nicotine".

"We have all been deceived by this industry that does not serve to quit smoking, but accumulates synergies with the tobacco industry. The result is that this communion girl will be addicted to nicotine for life and will be 300% more likely to end up smoking before she turns 14," said the organization, which criticized that even vapers that are advertised as nicotine-free "contain certain proportions of it" due to the "neglect of the Government."

  • Smoking

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

Learn more