Rishi Sunak is being urged to ban disposable vapes amid fears restrictions to protect children will not go far enough.
Children’s Commissioner Dame Rachel de Souza on Wednesday night called on the Prime Minister to “be decisive” as he launched a consultation on measures to tackle youth vaping.
Proposals published on Thursday will say the Government is “considering restricting the sale of disposable vapes”.
Health officials say all measures remain on the table, saying the consultation document, which will set out plans to restrict product flavours and remove those which most appeal to children, will rule nothing out.
Other proposals include regulations on packaging to avoid targeting children, with vapes kept out of their sight and well away from products that appeal to them, such as sweets.
The document will say prohibiting the sale and supply of disposable vapes should be among options considered.
On Wednesday, shadow health secretary Wes Streeting said a Labour government would come down on the vaping industry “like a ton of bricks”.
He told The Telegraph that this would mean an outright ban on disposable vapes, saying “I want to see them gone all together”.
Dame de Souza urged the Government to make the same commitment.
She said: “Without strong action – including a total ban on disposable vapes – we risk getting a generation of kids hooked on vaping.”
“Children need to be protected,” she added, saying: “I urge the Prime Minister to be serious about this issue and ban disposable vapes to protect our children, and to be as decisive as this as he has been on smoking.”
Councillor David Fothergill, Chairman of the LGA’s Community Wellbeing Board also called for an outright ban.
He said: “Single use vapes blight our streets as litter, are a hazard in our bin lorries, and are expensive and difficult to deal with in our recycling centres. Their colours, flavours and advertising are appealing to children and are a risk to the health of young people.”
The Government consultation, which spans to around 40 pages, will also examine whether increasing the price of e-cigarettes would reduce the number of young people using them.
It will also detail proposals announced last week to make it an offence for anyone born after 1 January 2009 to be sold tobacco products, with the rise of legal sale of cigarettes rising by a year annually, under plans which will go to a free vote in Parliament.
Mr Sunak said: “Our ambitious plans will reverse the worrying rise in youth vaping while protecting our children from the dangerous long-term effects of smoking as quickly as possible.”
The eight-week UK consultation also proposes new powers for local authorities to issue on-the-spot fines for those selling vapes to people under-age.
The vaping industry has repeatedly called for fines of up to £10,000 for those who sell e-cigarettes to children, while arguing against any move to ban disposable vapes.
Last month, the UK Vaping Industry Association said such a move could have “very serious unintended consequences” deterring adult smokers from quitting.
Earlier this year, a survey by YouGov for charity Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) revealed a 50 per cent rise in the number of children trying out vaping in the past year.
Experimental vaping among 11 to 17-year-olds in Britain increased from 7.7 per cent to 11.6 per cent, the data published in May showed.
Health and Social Care Secretary Steve Barclay said: “There has been a surge in vaping amongst children, which is why we’re taking action to reduce the appeal and availability of vapes.
“Vapes should never be used by children and we’re committed to reversing this trend.
“We also need to take bold action to protect future generations from the harms of smoking addiction, which damages health at every stage of life and costs the economy billions.”
Sarah Woolnough, chief executive at Asthma + Lung UK, said: “It is clear we must urgently act to stop children accessing vapes. Disposable vapes at their current pocket money prices, with cartoons and bubblegum flavour options, are far too attractive and easy for children to access.
“We also want to see restrictions on the marketing of vapes and on flavours so that they do not target children.”
Banning disposable vapes is an absolute no brainer. Whoever is making them must be spending most of their profits on backhanders.
Remember many of these are open public consultation where you can submit your views.
Reminder that air pollution kills over 30,000 people per year in this country, is equivalent to smoking 150 cigarettes per year, and the minimal efforts we’ve made to do something about it like ULEZs (which were projected to prevent 1,000,000 pollution related hospital admissions) have been violently opposed by the public.
But vapes have killed about 5 people in total and after decades of research there is no substantial evidence of long term harm. Clearly this is an urgent issue and protecting our kids from getting toxic shit in their lungs should be our top priority.
The government don’t ban things that make them money. Tobacco and alcohol are both far worse than vapes, yet continue. There’s no chance vapes are going anywhere.
Headline about disposable vapes but the image is someone using a refillable vape
Everyone: Can you fix the NHS & Economy? The country is falling apart rn.
Rishi: Ok so a man is a man, a women is a women, and no more vapes.
Bear down to hard on kids vaping and they will just go back to fags.
Good. I challenge anyone to justify disposable vapes existing…
Go one further and just ban single use batteries and FFS charge companies for the ewaste they make
Surprised they’re even allowed given we don’t even allow disposable plastic straws and those things were relatively recyclable
Doubt he will do it big tobacco owns the vape industry and is so tied to alot of pensions.
12 comments
[Archive Link](https://archive.ph/ukb0h). Article text follows.
—
Rishi Sunak is being urged to ban disposable vapes amid fears restrictions to protect children will not go far enough.
Children’s Commissioner Dame Rachel de Souza on Wednesday night called on the Prime Minister to “be decisive” as he launched a consultation on measures to tackle youth vaping.
Proposals published on Thursday will say the Government is “considering restricting the sale of disposable vapes”.
Health officials say all measures remain on the table, saying the consultation document, which will set out plans to restrict product flavours and remove those which most appeal to children, will rule nothing out.
Other proposals include regulations on packaging to avoid targeting children, with vapes kept out of their sight and well away from products that appeal to them, such as sweets.
The document will say prohibiting the sale and supply of disposable vapes should be among options considered.
On Wednesday, shadow health secretary Wes Streeting said a Labour government would come down on the vaping industry “like a ton of bricks”.
He told The Telegraph that this would mean an outright ban on disposable vapes, saying “I want to see them gone all together”.
Dame de Souza urged the Government to make the same commitment.
She said: “Without strong action – including a total ban on disposable vapes – we risk getting a generation of kids hooked on vaping.”
“Children need to be protected,” she added, saying: “I urge the Prime Minister to be serious about this issue and ban disposable vapes to protect our children, and to be as decisive as this as he has been on smoking.”
Councillor David Fothergill, Chairman of the LGA’s Community Wellbeing Board also called for an outright ban.
He said: “Single use vapes blight our streets as litter, are a hazard in our bin lorries, and are expensive and difficult to deal with in our recycling centres. Their colours, flavours and advertising are appealing to children and are a risk to the health of young people.”
The Government consultation, which spans to around 40 pages, will also examine whether increasing the price of e-cigarettes would reduce the number of young people using them.
It will also detail proposals announced last week to make it an offence for anyone born after 1 January 2009 to be sold tobacco products, with the rise of legal sale of cigarettes rising by a year annually, under plans which will go to a free vote in Parliament.
Mr Sunak said: “Our ambitious plans will reverse the worrying rise in youth vaping while protecting our children from the dangerous long-term effects of smoking as quickly as possible.”
The eight-week UK consultation also proposes new powers for local authorities to issue on-the-spot fines for those selling vapes to people under-age.
The vaping industry has repeatedly called for fines of up to £10,000 for those who sell e-cigarettes to children, while arguing against any move to ban disposable vapes.
Last month, the UK Vaping Industry Association said such a move could have “very serious unintended consequences” deterring adult smokers from quitting.
Earlier this year, a survey by YouGov for charity Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) revealed a 50 per cent rise in the number of children trying out vaping in the past year.
Experimental vaping among 11 to 17-year-olds in Britain increased from 7.7 per cent to 11.6 per cent, the data published in May showed.
Health and Social Care Secretary Steve Barclay said: “There has been a surge in vaping amongst children, which is why we’re taking action to reduce the appeal and availability of vapes.
“Vapes should never be used by children and we’re committed to reversing this trend.
“We also need to take bold action to protect future generations from the harms of smoking addiction, which damages health at every stage of life and costs the economy billions.”
Sarah Woolnough, chief executive at Asthma + Lung UK, said: “It is clear we must urgently act to stop children accessing vapes. Disposable vapes at their current pocket money prices, with cartoons and bubblegum flavour options, are far too attractive and easy for children to access.
“We also want to see restrictions on the marketing of vapes and on flavours so that they do not target children.”
Banning disposable vapes is an absolute no brainer. Whoever is making them must be spending most of their profits on backhanders.
Remember many of these are open public consultation where you can submit your views.
https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/creating-a-smokefree-generation-and-tackling-youth-vaping
Reminder that air pollution kills over 30,000 people per year in this country, is equivalent to smoking 150 cigarettes per year, and the minimal efforts we’ve made to do something about it like ULEZs (which were projected to prevent 1,000,000 pollution related hospital admissions) have been violently opposed by the public.
But vapes have killed about 5 people in total and after decades of research there is no substantial evidence of long term harm. Clearly this is an urgent issue and protecting our kids from getting toxic shit in their lungs should be our top priority.
The government don’t ban things that make them money. Tobacco and alcohol are both far worse than vapes, yet continue. There’s no chance vapes are going anywhere.
Headline about disposable vapes but the image is someone using a refillable vape
Everyone: Can you fix the NHS & Economy? The country is falling apart rn.
Rishi: Ok so a man is a man, a women is a women, and no more vapes.
Bear down to hard on kids vaping and they will just go back to fags.
Good. I challenge anyone to justify disposable vapes existing…
Go one further and just ban single use batteries and FFS charge companies for the ewaste they make
Surprised they’re even allowed given we don’t even allow disposable plastic straws and those things were relatively recyclable
Doubt he will do it big tobacco owns the vape industry and is so tied to alot of pensions.