The Kamloops-South MLA has written to B.C.’s Health Minister asking for immediate action to end youth vaping.

Todd Stone says his letter comes five months after he tabled a private member’s bill in the Legislature asking for tighter rules on vaping.

“I’ve got two daughters in high school now, so obviously we’re living this issue in real time. I have to tell you, it’s pretty sobering to hear kids who are 14, 15 years old and tell you ‘my friends have an addiction.’ They are acknowledging they are addicted to nicotine as a result of vaping.”

Stone says studies show youth vaping has surged this year which he says is because companies have successfully, and deliberately, targeted kids with their marketing.

His letter comes the same day that what is believed to be the first case of a vaping-related illness was confirmed in London, Ont., where a teenager who vapes daily was diagnosed with a severe pulmonary illness and briefly put on life support.

At least six deaths and hundreds of illnesses in the United States, meanwhile, have been blamed on vaping.

“We don’t even know what the long term health impacts will be yet. I don’t need anything more to happen to tell me that it’s imperative that as a province we act on this. And that’s why I’m calling on John Horgan, Adrian Dix and the NDP to do something, to protect the health and safety of our kids on youth vaping,” Stone says.