Germany: Vaping becoming more popular among young people

At least Antonia S.* has no desire to smoke cigarettes anymore. She started smoking at 18, and six years later switched to vaping. Watermelon flavor is her favorite, and a ten-milliliter bottle of e-liquid, the equivalent to about 60 e-cigarettes, lasts her a week.

"I've tried to quit smoking time and time again. It never worked until I tried vaping. I do feel that it's made me healthier. But on the other hand, I think I'm much more dependent on vaping than I was on smoking. Everyone I know says they vape much more than they would smoke," the 30-year-old told DW.

From a consumer perspective, vaping has the advantage that it doesn't smell like normal cigarettes. Antonia also vapes at home; smoking in the apartment was an absolute no-go but the sweet vapor from blueberry, cola or apple peach from her e-cigarette isn't a problem. Above all, it's possible anytime, anywhere.

"You're on it all the time. With cigarettes, you might have said 'I've only got five minutes, that's not enough,' and then you didn't spark up after all. I don't even have to go outside to vape," Antonia says. When would she stop using e-cigarettes? "Right now, I feel like it's doing me more good than harm. But if I got pregnant, I'd stop immediately."

Number of young smokers is rising

Health experts in Germany are worried that young people, in particular, are once again turning to e-cigarettes and even to regular cigarettes much more frequently than the generation before them. According to a recent survey, almost 10% of Germany's 12- to 17-year-olds smoked in 2025, compared to only around 6% four years earlier. Almost 7% of this age group regularly use vapes, more than twice as many as in 2021.

The Federal Government's Drug Commissioner, Hendrik Streeck, who commissioned the study, sees a trend reversal. 

"Tobacco prevention has been successful in Germany for years, but this success no longer seems guaranteed," Streeck said. "Starting with vapes makes young people nicotine-dependent and often leads them to also smoke cigarettes in the long term. Nicotine itself is not harmless. Neither are the additives in vapes."

The Federal Institute for Risk Assessment has identified 13 additives that are harmful to health and, in some cases, carcinogenic: "Tobacco and nicotine are highly addictive products. We shouldn't downplay that. In Germany, 360 people die every day as a result of consuming them."

Tobacco industry: 'E-cigarettes less harmful'

Streeck is calling for a ban on flavors that appeal to young people, a higher tobacco tax with the additional revenue flowing directly into the health system, and stricter age controls. According to the Youth Protection Act, the purchase, possession and consumption of tobacco products and nicotine-containing products is prohibited for persons under 18 years of age — this also applies to nicotine-free vapes.

And what about the tobacco industry? The German Association of E-Cigarette Retailers told DW that e-cigarettes are explicitly not products for young people or non-smokers.

"With regard to health risks, there is a broad international scientific consensus that e-cigarettes are significantly less harmful compared to conventional tobacco cigarettes. This explicitly does not mean that e-cigarettes are harmless, but according to current scientific understanding, they represent a significantly lower-risk alternative to tobacco cigarettes for adult smokers," it said.

Elementary school kids at risk?

For Bob Blume, the idea of ​​a lower-risk alternative is a bit of a double-edged sword. Germany's most famous education influencer, with nearly 240,000 Instagram followers, used to be a social smoker himself, he told DW, until he switched to vaping. He inhaled his first e-cigarette first thing in the morning, continued vaping happily at his desk, and as an adult, managed to stay smoke-free for more than two months. That was reason enough for him to explicitly warn of the dangers of its high addictive potential on social media and in his podcast "Die Schule brennt" ("The School is on Fire").

"Vaping has a certain coolness factor and the 'coming-of-age' factor," he said. "Many teachers report that vaping is happening in school restrooms. After my video on the topic, I received comments and messages saying that it's already starting in elementary schools."

Blume observes a certain helplessness about how to deal with the issue: "That's perhaps something that vaping and smartphone use have in common."

Social media influencers fuel the hype

Since e-cigarettes have only been increasingly consumed since 2010, long-term studies on their health consequences are still lacking. While scientists generally assume that the potential for cancer is lower with electronic cigarettes, researchers at Oxford University warn that vapes containing nicotine are likely carcinogenic to the mouth and lungs and more than double the risk of serious lung diseases.

To protect minors, Blume is therefore calling for a large-scale campaign against vaping — and sees well-known German influencers like Haftbefehl, Montana Black and Zarbex, with their millions of followers, as also having a responsibility.

"Those influencers have a lot of power; they don't even have to be proactive vapers," Blume said. "There's my idol, who's achieved everything I want. He's cool, funny and eloquent, and he casually buys a Porsche. And vaping is just a normal pastime. That has a huge influence, definitely."

This article was originally published in German.