Tilda Gladwell
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has announced a commitment to ban disposable vapes in the UK.
Health Secretary Victoria Atkins told the BBC the new bill targeting disposable vapes should come into force by 2025.
The decision came amid growing fears over the number of young people vaping.
ALARMING NUMBER OF YOUNG VAPERS
“The vaping market has adapted to appeal to young people”
According to the government, nine per cent of children aged 11-15 years old in the UK now use vapes, even though it is illegal to sell vapes to anyone under the age of 18.
While vapes have been positively cited as an effective tool to help adults quit smoking, they still contain harmful and addictive substances, like nicotine.
Sunak said: “Children shouldn’t be vaping, we don’t want them to get addicted, we still don’t understand the full long-term health impacts.”
The vaping market has adapted to appeal to young people, with colourful packaging and enticing flavours — from bubblegum to sour apple — contributing to an increase in young vapers.
Additionally, not enough shops ask young people for ID when they purchase vapes.
The government’s plan to tackle the vaping epidemic in the UK will see crackdowns on accessibility to vapes, including restricting flavours marketed at children and manufacturing less visually appealing packaging.
ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT OF DISPOSABLE VAPES
Disposable vapes also have a huge environmental impact.
https://twitter.com/ldnautistadam/status/1756103767106175035
In 2023, roughly five million single-use vapes were thrown away each week in the UK. This was quadruple the number disposed of in 2022.
According to Material Focus, less than one fifth of people who vape know how to correctly recycle their disposables.
TIGHTER REGULATIONS ON VAPE COMPANIES
The government also plans to crack down on the marketing of vapes.
The PM first hinted at placing restrictions on vape companies during the Tory Party Conference in October 2023.
In addition to reducing the number of young smokers, Sunak said the government would restrict the availability of vapes.
Other regulations the government aims to impose includes banning flavours which could be marketed at children and using plainer packaging. Shops could also be required to display vapes out of sight of children, including behind the counter.
Today, any shop caught selling vapes to under-age customers could be fined up to £2,500 by authorities. But stores could face far heftier fines in the future.
WHY IS THE DISPOSABLE VAPE BAN NECESSARY?
“There have been multiple incidents of children being hospitalised with brain or lung damage”
Currently, the advertising of disposable vapes such as Elf Bar, with neon packaging and sweet flavours, has been found to be enticing to young people.
Paul Bolls, Associate Dean of Research at Edward R. Murrow College, said: “Children’s advertising often targets two areas of a child’s brain … One is the limbic system which controls our emotional responses.”
“The other targeted brain area is the prefrontal cortex, which helps control cognitive behaviour like self-control and decision-making skills.”
'People should not be making money out of marketing these hideous things to our children'
The Children’s Commissioner for England Dame @Rachel_deSouza told @emmabarnett why she supports the Government's move to ban disposable vapes.
Listen here ⬇️
— BBC Woman's Hour (@BBCWomansHour) February 14, 2024
Children are more impulsive than adults because these areas of their brains are not yet developed. Additionally, school-aged children can be easily influenced by their classmates and may feel pressured to take up vaping.
While vapes have not been around long enough to determine the long-term health impacts of vaping, there have been multiple incidents of children being hospitalised with brain or lung damage.
One incident saw a twelve-year-old girl suffer lung collapse after she became addicted to the nicotine hit from vaping.
“Don’t start doing it, because once you start doing it, you don’t stop doing it,” she advised other young people.
“You only stop when you basically have to, when it’s a life or death situation.”
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Featured image courtesy of Sierra Alpha Juliet via Unsplash. No changes were made to this image. Image license found here.
