Is passive vaping dangerous for children?

"Well it's not nearly as bad as smoking tobacco, right?" People who vape often reassure themselves that what they - and people around them - are inhaling won't cause much damage to their health, at least compared to cigarettes.

After all, manufacturers market their strawberry or piña colada-flavoured liquid nicotine as a seemingly harmless alternative to tobacco.

While vapes have been shown to also cause cancer, lung damage and addiction, are things just as bad for passive vapers?

"E-cigarettes do not emit all the harmful substances contained in tobacco smoke," says Prof. Hans-Jürgen Nentwich, a health expert on the committee of Professional Association of Paediatricians and Adolescent Doctors (BVKJ) in Germany.

Vapes can nevertheless also harm people - especially any children - who inhale the vape fumes, he says.

And yet since e-cigarettes are a comparatively new product, there is still a lack of scientific evidence on the long-term health effects of actively or passively inhaling what someone has exhaled from a vape, writes the German Cancer Research Centre (DKFZ).

The vapour contains a number of harmful substances, such as formaldehyde and acetaldehyde, which are classified as carcinogenic. Even though the concentration of these substances in e-cigarette vapour is probably low, doctors have not given the all-clear for people to vape around other people with a clear conscience. No number of carcinogens is considered safe, experts say.

Nentwich, who is a paediatrician, advises parents to play it safe: “Never smoke or vape in a house, car or in places where children spend time. That is the best way to protect children as their lungs are still growing and are therefore more vulnerable.”

Avoiding passive vaping is all the more important if your child has asthma. Children with this respiratory disease who inhale e-cigarette smoke at home are more likely to suffer asthma attacks, a study has found.

But regardless of whether a child has asthma, parents have to assume that a child will inhale harmful substances when vaping passively. The paediatricians point to another study in which researchers tested the blood, saliva and breath of four to 12-year-old children who were regularly exposed to e-cigarette vapour, and compared the levels with those of children who were not. The samples from the children who “vaped” had higher levels of harmful substances.