Live Lesson on health and environmental impacts of vapes

As part of our Climate Action Schools framework we hosted a mini live lesson with ASH Scotland this week untangling facts from myths on the different impacts that e-cigarettes and vapes have on our health and environment.  

More than 3,250 children and young people joined us to hear from our education team and Sheila Duffy CEO of ASH Scotland.  It was a lesson delivered online and designed to support Eco-Committees or classes working on topics like Climate Action, Health and Wellbeing and Litter and Waste. 

Around 26 million disposable vapes were consumed and thrown away in Scotland in 2022, and we know from our surveys that 44% of people in Scotland have said they often find single-use vapes littered in their communities.  Our on the ground surveys of litter record single-use vapes on 6% of all sites - and it is the fastest growing litter type being recorded.

We joined the Marine Conservation Society, environmental campaigner and ethical influencer Laura Young, and ASH Scotland in calling for a ban on the sale of single-use vapes in February 2023, and since then have been working to raise awareness of the alarming rate at which these are being littered.

ASH Scotland – Action on Smoking and Health (Scotland) - is the leading Scottish charity working in and for Scotland on both devolved and reserved issues to reduce the harms caused by tobacco and related products.  With one in five adolescents in Scotland having tried a single-use vape their use is skyrocketing - making the mini live lesson extremely topical.

The live lesson can be watched again, and lesson resources downloaded, on our website.