The average age at which a young person in the Cayman Islands first tries a vaping product has slipped to 12 years old, health officials say, as the government moves to ban disposable vapes and restrict sales of reusable vapes to adults.
Citing unpublished data from a 2026 National Drug Council survey, senior policy advisor Lorren Stainton said the age at which Cayman’s youth first begin vaping is gradually dropping, with girls more likely than boys to pick up the harmful habit.
Of 250 students who reported using nicotine vapes in the 30 days before the survey, one in five reported vaping every day. One in 10 students who vaped cannabis also reported daily use.
The figures come from a recent biennial survey of schoolchildren, which Stainton said was released to the Ministry of Health, Environment and Sustainability this month.
“It’s really, really concerning,” Stainton told Radio Cayman during a 14 August airing of ‘For the Record’. “We want to dispel the myth that vaping is healthy or not harmful, because it’s just not true.”
The recent findings come amid public consultations for the Tobacco (Amendment) Bill, 2026, which was gazetted on 13 August. The bill aims to amend the Tobacco Act, 2008 and would rename it the Tobacco and Vape Act, 2026, bringing vaping and nicotine products within a regime that until now has governed only tobacco.
The 2008 legislation, Stainton said, has not kept up with the changing market, as manufacturers find ways to work around the existing legal definitions of tobacco.
“We know that nicotine is being created in laboratories,” she said. “So, it’s completely evading definitions that we have in current legislation.”
Acting Health Minister Wayne Panton, also speaking on Radio Cayman, underscored the chemicals used to add artificial flavours to vaping products and the harmful market trends that they generate.
“What is that designed to do? That is designed to appeal to young people. That’s where the market is. That’s where they’re pushing these things,” he said.
“I believe in a free market, but I also believe strongly that when it comes to protecting our children, when it comes to public health, that we need to make decisions about balancing those interests appropriately.”
New fines and restrictions proposed
The Tobacco (Amendment) Bill, 2026, would make it an offence to import, manufacture, package, label, sell, advertise or promote disposable vaping products, which Stainton said are contributing to landfill waste.
A first breach carries a fine of CI$15,000; a subsequent breach carries a $30,000 fine and up to 12 months’ imprisonment.
The bill also extends existing tobacco controls to reusable vapes and nicotine products. It would be an offence to sell a vaping or nicotine product to a minor, to make one available for a minor’s use, or to hire or use a minor to handle such products, and minors would be barred from buying them. The bill defines a ‘nicotine product’ to include disposable vapes, flavoured vapes and nicotine pouches.
Vaping would also be subject to the islands’ smoking restrictions, which prohibit smoking in or with 10 feet of a public space.
The ban on sales to children would take effect immediately once the bill passes, while businesses would be given a period of likely six months to clear disposable-vape stock.
Public consultation on the the Tobacco (Amendment) Bill, 2026 close on 18 September at publicconsultation.gov.ky. Town-hall meetings on the bill and other proposed health bills are scheduled at John Gray Memorial Church Hall in West Bay on Wednesday, 26 August and at Constitution Hall in George Town on Thursday, 27 August, both from 6:30pm to 8:30pm.
