‘Ludicrous’ lack of help to quit vapes, says Cork councillor

A Cork city councillor has said it is “ludicrous” that the HSE has insufficient resources to support people who wish to quit vaping.

The HSE Tobacco Free Ireland Programme provides services to people wishing to quit smoking tobacco products, but does not have services for people to quit vaping.

A HSE spokesperson told Labour TD Marie Sherlock that it has “neither been directed or funded by the Department of Health to develop a stop vaping service”.

The spokesperson said the development of such a service would require a range of additional dedicated resources.

“Staff working within stop smoking services have seen an increasing number of clients contact our stop smoking services looking for support to quit vaping in conjunction with their tobacco use [dual use], as well as from clients who do not use tobacco and only use e-cigarettes and wish to quit.

“Currently, if a client is dual using both tobacco [ie smoking] and vaping, they can access the regular stop smoking service and the full range of supports — including access to free nicotine replacement therapy.

“We do not have capacity to deliver stop vaping care … and are not resourced to do so.”

They said the HSE Tobacco Free Ireland Programme has prepared a business case and estimates bid for consideration by the minister for the development of a pilot e-cigarette cessation service.

Labour Cork city councillor Peter Horgan told The Echo: “It is ludicrous that the HSE is not being funded to the hilt to tackle vaping. Vaping will become one of the major public health crises of our time if it is left unchecked.

“The stickers on bins from vapes outside every shop in this city is a testament to the prevalent use among mainly young people,” he said.

“We must fund the HSE to adopt a war-like response to encourage vape quitting measures similar to the tobacco quitting measures adopted over the past decades.”

Ms Sherlock said it was “alarming” that the Government was not keeping up with trends and funding the HSE to support people who wish to stop all forms of nicotine use.

“We accept that vapes have assisted people to stop smoking tobacco, but we now see exceptional marketing by tobacco companies to get a new generation addicted to their other products.