Vaping hits alarming levels among South African teens – new study of fee-paying schools

On March 6, 2025, the op-ed Vaping hits alarming levels among South African teens – new study of fee-paying schools was published in The Conversation by REEP's Samantha Filby and co-author, Richard van Zyl Smit, a Professor and Consultant Pulmonologist at the University of Cape Town. The media was quick to pick up on the story and a range of coverage followed. 

The initial article by the two public health researchers was based on their latest study, published in The Lancet’s eClinical Medicine, which found that vaping among South African pupils is sky high. They surveyed over 25,000 South African high school students across 52 schools in eight of South Africa’s nine provinces.

Published material included a March 11 op-ed, titled Alarming rise of vaping among South African schoolchildren, in IOL Opinion. UCT News then issued a press release on 9 April to cover the story: Address SA’s adolescent vaping catastrophe.

The media soon followed, with clippings including the 16 April story: South Africa has an emerging youth vaping ‘crisis’, in the Mail & Guardian.

On 11 April 2025 Sam Filby was interviewed on eNCA: Government urged to start regulating vapes.  She was then interviewed on 15 April on The Morning Brief on SAFM: "As teen vaping rates surge across South Africa, public health experts are sounding the alarm as a UCT study showed that 17% of surveyed high school students currently vape". On the 18th Sam was interviewed by Iman Rapetti, see Newzroom Afrika: Pupils as young as 13 vape daily - UCT study.

Additional coverage includes the 5 May story: Generation vape: The alarming impacts of vape dependence on your child's mental health, on News 24.

Read the full journal article, here.