Lola Young says her vaping addiction has made breathing 'a chore' and her lungs feel 'battery powered'

Lola Young has revealed the impact her vaping addiction has begun to have on her health, as she admitted her lungs feel 'battery powered.'

The singer, 25, said in a video she has no plans to quit until she turns 45, but moaned that her vape use has turned breathing into a 'chore.'

In a video posted on TikTok, Lola confessed she was previously warned she would start to feel the impact of vaping after several years of use, and admitted breathing has become 'hard work.'

New government crackdowns to make the UK a 'smoke-free nation' have already come into effect, and a UK-wide ban on the sale of vapes and nicotine products to under-18s is due to come into force on October 29.

Lola told her followers: 'Someone once said to me, Lola there will be a day when you wake up, you'll be 25 or 26, from a deep sleep and you'll start to feel the effects of vaping.

'And do you know what I said? I said 'nah' and rolled my eyes.

'But let me tell you something, let me tell you something, the day has come. That day has come, where my lungs feel like they're battery powered, like they're just one big battery, and breathing feels like a chore. 

'It feels like hard work, it feels like I should be paid for breathing. I feel like I should be paid to breathe, a good wage £30 an hour. And it feels like there'll be no tomorrow.

'But let me tell you something, I'll try to quit when I'm 45.'

Lola took a break from the limelight last year after collapsing on stage in September 2025, and she revealed in March that she has been in 'drugs recovery.'

In an interview she opened up about her 'ongoing' sobriety journey and revealed she is 'doing a h*** of a lot better' since getting treatment.

Speaking to The Sunday Times, she said: 'I think I would rather for the sake of my privacy not say too much. But what I would say is that recovery is an ongoing process. I'm not the finished article, but I'm doing a hell of a lot better.'

When asked to clarify, she added: 'I mean drugs recovery, yes. When you're in recovery … that doesn't necessarily need to mean drugs – but me specifically, yes.'

The singer later revealed she checked into a 'holistic facility' that focuses on addiction and mental health, and she is now attending AA.

Lola also shared that she endured similar demons while recording her album I'm Only F**king Myself back in 2024.

She said: 'There were a lot of things going on for me personally — I was going through a lot of mental health issues, a lot of battling with addiction.'

The star sang about her battle with cocaine addiction and her previous stints in rehab on her previous record, with lyrics describing herself as 'a dumb little addict… trying to quit the snowflake.'

It comes after a new tax crackdown on vaping was introduced, which could mean users pay up to £600 more a year.

A new levy of £2.20 per 10ml of vape liquid means a heavy user getting through around 270 bottles a year could face the £600 annual hit, while a bottle currently marketed at around £3.99 could now cost almost £7.

Smokers will also be hit, with a 44p rise on a typical pack of 20 cigarettes – equivalent to around £160 a year for someone smoking a pack a day.

A typical 50g pouch of tobacco is also expected to rise by around £4.20, amounting to almost £110 extra a year for someone getting through a pouch every fortnight – or £218 for those buying one a week. 

The changes are designed to ensure vaping remains cheaper than smoking, while discouraging young people from taking up nicotine products.

They come just weeks before a UK-wide ban on the sale of vapes and nicotine products to under-18s comes into force on October 29.

This will make it illegal to sell nicotine or vape products to anyone under 18, including nicotine-free vapes, e-liquids and nicotine pouches.

Adults who buy – or attempt to buy – vapes or nicotine products for anyone underage will also be committing an offence.

The Government is also set to ban people from vaping in their own cars if children are present, under new laws aimed at boosting the nation's health.

All existing places where smoking is already banned will also become vape-free, including workplaces, pubs and public transport.

Meanwhile, smoking and vaping will be prohibited in some outdoor areas for the first time, including children's playgrounds and outside schools, subject to consultation.

The Department of Health and Social Care said the measures would protect children and vulnerable people, including from the harms of breathing in secondhand smoke.

The regulations were first outlined in the 2024 Budget, with vape traders required to apply to HMRC for approval.

Speaking about the changes in August, Rachel Nixon, director of indirect tax, said: 'Manufacturers, importers and warehouse keepers should be preparing to pay any of the new excise duty due, to comply with the new requirements.'

Businesses and sellers found to be flouting the new rules could face legal action and be banned from trading.

But critics have raised concerns that making vaping substantially more expensive could dissuade smokers from using e-cigarettes to quit.

Evidence shows that while vaping is not risk-free, it is far less harmful than smoking tobacco, which exposes users to thousands of chemicals, many of them toxic and capable of causing cancer.

'It is worrying that public perceptions of vaping are now so far out of step with the evidence,' Hazel Cheeseman, chief executive of Action on Smoking and Health, said.

'For smokers, these misconceptions have real consequences.'

A major review of vaping by King's College London found that e-cigarettes posed a fraction of the risk of tobacco smoking, with vapers significantly less exposed to harmful substances.

However, another study involving more than 4.5 million former smokers, published in the journal Nature Medicine, found that switching from cigarettes to vapes may not reduce lung cancer risk.

Around 5.4 million adults now use e-cigarettes daily or occasionally, compared with 4.9 million who smoke – meaning roughly one in ten adults now vape.

Smoking remains one of the biggest preventable causes of death, with research showing that around one in two long-term smokers will die from a smoking-related disease, including lung cancer, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), heart disease and stroke.