BAN ON SWEET FLAVOURS WOULD BE DEADLY ERROR
SEARCH ‘vaping’ on any social media website and you’ll be greeted with swathes of images of young celebrities endorsing candycoloured tubes of liquid.
They’re spiked with sweet, delicious flavourings – from mango, to banana, to candy-floss. It appears to be part of a ferocious campaign to encourage teenagers to take up the habit.
There have been warnings of an ‘epidemic’ of vaping among young people, with regulators in Ireland and America considering a ban on flavoured e-cigarettes. But these images mostly come from the US, where advertising regulations are more relaxed. In the UK, such advertising is more strictly regulated.
As for a British ‘epidemic’ of young vapers – there is no evidence for it. Only one per cent of young people think vaping ‘looks cool’, according to the latest survey by ASH of 2,500 youngsters. Just one in 20 11-to-18-year-olds vape.
Among youngsters who have never smoked, only 0.1 per cent vape more than once a week. None do so daily.
‘We’re not seeing an epidemic of vaping among young people – it’s the opposite,’ said Ann McNeill, professor of tobacco addiction from King’s College London. ‘There’s no sign e-cigarettes cause young people to take up smoking.’
Any ban could, according to experts, be a decision the Government lives to regret.
Prof Britton, from the UK Centre of Alcohol & Tobacco Studies, said: ‘To ban [flavours] effectively says “Carry on smoking”, because flavours are essential to smokers’ tolerability. That kills. A flavour ban will kill thousands of people in the US.’