At least 14 children were hospitalised this year as a result of using vapes and pediatricians suspect many more children are experiencing health problems, RTL Nieuws reported on Wednesday.

Since November 1, the Dutch association of pediatricians has been calling on family doctors to report cases of children who become ill after vaping.

Most of the children who ended up needing hospital care were seriously ill. A 16-year-old recently suffered bleeding on the lungs and a 15-year-old and a 17-year-old had to be admitted to intensive care.

Others in the group had airway obstructions, a collapsed lung, and a serious deterioration of lung function. Following extensive tests, vaping was the only possible cause of the symptoms, doctors said.

A 14-year-old girl said she would vape every five minutes and would wake up during the night and vape. A 17-year-old said he would take a hit 1,000 times a day. The pediatricians said no one type of vape was causing the damage and that health problems vary. It is often not clear why one child falls gravely ill while another doesn’t, they said.

 It is clear, however, that some vapes popular with teenagers are packed with toxic metals, cancer-causing chemicals and a much higher amount of nicotine than legally allowed, the broadcaster found earlier.

RTL asked 10 schools across the country to send them vapes they had confiscated from pupils and had them analysed.

Tests by a specialised lab in Liverpool found that eight in 20 vapes contained too much nicotine while seven out of 20 vapes contained formaldehyde. Lead was found in three out of 20 vapes while several of the vapes contained nickel, acetone, iron and other compounds, all of which are toxic and contribute to lung disease. All of the vapes were found to contain more than the legal amount of liquid.

Pediatric lung doctor Marije van den Beukel, who with five fellow pulmonologists monitors the reports, said they were “looking at the tip of the iceberg”.

“All of the 14 cases were serious enough for family doctors to say “we have to do something with this”, she said. But, she said, many more cases go without reporting.

Addiction

“When talking to colleagues at conferences or the hospital I frequently hear stories about children who don’t sleep because of a nicotine addiction, or children who feel sick, cough a lot or suddenly develop asthma. These cases don’t show up in the figures but we know they are there,” Van den Beukel said.

By monitoring the cases, the pediatricians hope to gain more insights into the effects of vaping on children’s health. “We don’t have that information yet because vaping is new. By collecting the data we hope to help family doctors who are confronted with a sick child, for instance by advising on medication,” she said.

Van den Breukel also hopes the seriousness of the facts will serve as a wake-up call. “We want to show that this is what is happening to children in the Netherlands, with all the stress and grief for the child and the family that could have been prevented. It makes you frustrated and angry, not with the children, but with the tobacco industry and the people who have allowed this to happen.”