A businessman is helping to tackle vaping in schools thanks to his impressive creation.

Simon Hassett was struck by inspiration after he was tasked with helping a teacher find a solution to students vaping in school.

The 36-year-old from Hedge End scoured the internet but failed to discover anything that would help.

With a background in software, Simon set to work on making something himself – a vape detector.

Daily Echo: Simon Hassett Simon Hassett (Image: VapeGuardian)

He said: “My friend said their school was having a big problem with children vaping during school time and asked me to find a detector.

“All the companies are incredibly expensive and I couldn’t find one that was in budget, so I went out to create one myself.

“I built a detector to sense when someone is vaping.

“The sensor works through Wi-Fi – it sends the findings from the detector back to our system.

“If someone is vaping, it sends out a message to people in about two to five seconds.”

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Five months after he started work on his initial idea, Simon made his first sale last October.

Since then, he has found that schools are ‘screaming out’ for the detector.

Last December, Woodlands Community College sent out a letter to parents and carers regarding ‘an increase in the number of students bringing vapes into school.’

The letter said: “Vapes are a banned item in school and if we suspect that a student has one on them, we will be conducting searches of the student’s belongings and blazer and in some cases, we will also use a metal detector wand.

“Students should be focussing on learning and socialising positively as opposed to being distracted by something that is becoming addictive and where we don’t yet know the full health risks.”

There are several schools in Hampshire currently using the detectors.

Simons said: “We have been receiving great testimonials from schools and they have all come back very positively and said there has been a drop in children vaping.

“In week one of having the detectors, schools received 17-22 alerts each day.

“On week two, it dropped by an average of eight to 11 alerts per day. We then saw consistent drops from there.

“It works as a deterrent and they are definitely doing what they are intended for - 51 per cent of all people who vape have never smoked before, and that’s an issue because it was introduced to lead people away from smoking.

“Children are addicted.”

To find out more, search VapeGuardian online.