Reports in the National Media this morning suggests that there will be an immediate ban on disposable vapes
The Telegraph has revealed that health ministers are preparing to act, having decided that single-use vapes are overwhelmingly targeted at those aged under 18.
“Ministers are understood to have decided not to go a step further and copy Australia by banning all vaping without a prescription, because they have accepted the benefits of e-cigarettes to help smokers to quit.” says the paper
A senior Whitehall insider told The Telegraph: “Disposable vapes are almost entirely aimed at kids and they are environmentally damaging. There is a wide consensus emerging on the need to act.”
A report last week revealed that five million single-use vapes are being thrown away in the UK every week, a fourfold increase on 2022
This amounts to eight vapes a second being discarded, with the lithium in the products enough to create 5,000 electric car batteries a year.
However Christopher Snowdon, Head of Lifestyle Economics at the free market Institute of Economic Affairs, said:
“A ban on disposable vapes will restrict the choices of millions of adult smokers who could benefit from switching to them.
“E-cigarettes are life saving products that can only legally be sold to people over the age of 18. We do not ban cider because some teenagers drink it. We do not ban 18 certificate films because some teenagers watch them. We don’t ban cigarettes because some teenagers smoke them.
“If these reports are true, the government has mistaken legislating for governing. The answer to underage vaping is to enforce the laws that already exist. There is no reason why children should be able to buy e-cigarettes more easily than they can buy vodka.”
