Primary-school pupils are becoming so ill from vaping they’re ending up in hospital – warns the latest investigation into e-cigarettes.

While my parents may have feared me trying the tobacco type come my mid-teens – parents of children still in single figures fear it’s only a matter of time before their child is offered a taste of something that resembles a lollipop.

Sweet-like novelty flavours often in brightly coloured plastic disposable containers made to look like a cross between a kid’s marker pen and an item of make-up.

As a parent of children yet to hit their teens, many a conversation about vaping has already happened in our house, so accessible and familiar are they with them.

I’m also not naive to statistics which suggest, taking into account their ages, it’ll be sooner rather than later before someone offers them a try (assuming this hasn’t happened already).

When schools are installing ceiling sensors to try and control something that has become so popular with youngsters that toilet blocks risk becoming overrun with those indulging in their habit, you’d have to be living under a rock to not appreciate as a parent the numbers in which vapes are circulating among children and teens.

For many smokers there is no doubt vaping has become key to kicking a habit that risked their premature death.

But that’s quite the complex public health message to appreciate as a youngster. Cigarettes are worse than vapes; vapes are preferable to tobacco; public health messages encourage smokers to switch to vaping and yet at the same time we would prefer young non-smokers to not touch them at all?

It’s also fair to acknowledge that vapes have probably saved many a child’s life too – or at least protected them from potential health problems – thanks to parents making the switch and thus protecting their offspring from the harmful effects of secondary smoking.

The government recently announced plans to clamp down on firms targeting teens on social media platforms like TikTok.

A step in the right direction for sure, but it doesn’t detract from the fact that for the most part enforcement around vapes and children’s access to them is rather woeful. The UK Vaping Industry Association is among those now backing the implementation of tougher rules to reduce youth vaping.

And although it may be illegal for products to be sold to under 18s, we know it goes on, while rules about what they can and can’t contain don't prevent illicit devices containing other ingredients entering the market via rogue traders.

Having watched children do a spectacular trade in must-have viral energy drinks these past 12 months – kids can be extremely entrepreneurial when they put their minds to it and they’ll be a system somewhere for supplying those not able to get their own.

The Royal College of Paediatricians has warned of an ‘epidemic’ of vaping among children. And while you could argue the long-term data about the full effects is yet to be gathered in full - how hard would it be to introduce laws that permit reformed smokers to use them freely while making them significantly less attractive to children?

Ban the colourful packaging, stop the the adverts altogether, keep vapes hidden behind screens and cupboards as we’ve come to now sell cigarettes. strictly regulate how and through which means they can be sold. Give them the look, feel and purpose of a nicotine patch that enables those trying to give up smoking straightforward access while controlling how much younger children see of them at all.

UK tobacco sales fell faster after plain packaging and tougher tax rules came into force. As a society we have a wealth of experience from which we can draw on to agree a policy that protects young people’s health without limiting access to vapes for those who really need them. What is it that we’re waiting for?