Last year, girls smoked as much as boys for the first time, according to a survey of secondary school pupils by the Flemish Alcohol and other Drugs (VAD) expertise centre. This includes both traditional cigarettes and e-cigarettes.
Young people (12 to 18 years old) are smoking fewer classic cigarettes containing tobacco; 15.9% said they had smoked tobacco in the past year compared to 17% in 2021-2022. While the number of boys who smoke has always been higher than the number of girls, this is now no longer true.
"The fact that tobacco use continues to decline overall is a positive evolution," Pieter Debognies, tobacco and nicotine expert of the Vlaams Instituut Gezond Leven, told VRT. "This may be because tobacco smoking is considered less and less normal in society today. Many additional measures are also being implemented: additional smoking bans, higher tobacco prices, the ban on sales in large supermarkets and via vending machines."
However, the decreased popularity of the regular cigarette is more than compensated by the rise of the e-cigarette. Since the 2021-2022 school year, e-cigarettes have been more popular than classic cigarettes, and this was also the case last year. Nearly one in four pupils have vaped in the past year, with 6.5% doing so regularly; the proportion of students who vape regularly has tripled since 2018-2019.
'Cleaner'
Most young people experiment with e-cigarettes out of curiosity, but this is not what worries Debognies. "Trying things out is part of the period of being young. We also see that half of the young people who vaped in the past year have since stopped again – and hopefully for good."
More worrying, he said, is the increased number of young people who vape regularly and even daily. "We see this especially among 17- and 18-year-olds and in technical and practical education. In the latter, one student in ten says they vape daily. We need to avoid this increasing further."
Strikingly, girls have closed the gap with boys in e-cigarette use, and are even surpassing them: 23.8% of girls say they have vaped in the last year, compared to 22.5% of boys.
While there is no demonstrable explanation as to why e-cigarettes are gaining more popularity among girls than boys, Debognies believes that it might have to do with the e-cigarette's "cleaner" image. "You do not get dirty fingers or teeth from it. The flavours available also give off a more pleasant smell than tobacco smoke."
A man smoking at Dour music festival. Credit: Belga / Virginie Lefour
Still, traditional cigarettes and e-cigarettes both contain nicotine – which is the substance that causes addiction – and the products should be fought together as there is a clear link in usage, Debognies stressed: young people who already smoke or have smoked are more likely to reach for the e-cigarette.
"If we focus too much on slowing down the e-cigarette, we risk certain young people smoking more again," he said. "On the other hand, today's situation should not escalate further, because a lot of young people also start using the e-cigarette without ever having smoked a traditional cigarette."
Additionally, e-cigarettes should not be so easily accessible to young people, as a large part of the recent increase in usage is attributed to the disposable ones. "They are available in different colours and flavours, which obviously appeal to young people. They are also very cheap and traders are massively violating the ban on selling to minors."
