Call for minimum pricing on e-cigarettes and tobacco after surge in young vapers

health chiefs have called for a minimum price for e-cigarettes and tobacco to be introduced, over concerns prices are kept “artificially low”.

According to Public Health Scotland (PHS) the prevalence of youth vaping has risen rapidly.

In 2022,25 percent of 15- year olds reported having used av ape in the last 30 days compared to just 7 per cent in 2018.

Most e-cigarettes contain nicotine, which is addictive, and research from the scottish government claims it can be a gateway to smoking tobacco.

A PHS report, titled ‘Stopping tobacco smoking andy outhva ping ’, says research shows that “the tobacco industry keeps the price of its cheapest cigarettes artificially low to encourage smoking initiation and maintenance”,andthate-cigarettesare also cheap.

“The importance of product price is recognised by the UK and Scottish governments,” the report reads.

“Oneoptionthatcouldbe considered is the introductionofaminimum price for e-cigarettes and a higher minimum price for tobacco.”

Thereport’sauthorsalso state that restricting the availability of these products “needs consideration”, and supports governmentproposalsforplain packaging for e-cigarettes.

“E-cigarettes are advertised widely in our communities and online,”thereportreads.“e-cigarette advertising could be banned nationally and localscottish ly to reduce their appeal.” Thescottishconservativessaid that the latest UK budget measures, which introduced a substantialincreaseintobaccoduty and brought in a tax on vapes, would mean a de facto minimum price for these products anyway.

Scottish Conservative shadow health secretary Dr Sandesh Gulhane added that the Tories “have already called for an update in the law on vaping to bring it into line with the regulations on smoking”.

“We’d also ban the sale of nonnicotine vaping products to under-18s and increase fines forthosewhoillegallysellvapes andtobaccotounder-18s–alaw that is currently widely flouted and poorly enforced,” said Dr Gulhane.

“The UK Budget introduced a substantial tobacco duty increaseandanewdutyonvaping products from 2026.

“That makes it crucial that the Scottish government considers measuresinthecomprehensive Vapingrestrictionsbillwehave already proposed.”

There were over 8,000 smoking-related deaths in Scotland in 2022, and smoking is a major cause of health inequalities in Scotland.

People living in the most deprived communities are almost four times more likely to smoke than those living in other areas, according to the 2022 Scottish Health Survey.

Smoking causes cancer, heart disease, stroke, lung diseases, diabetes, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and early death, while according to Phs,“smokingduringpregnancy is the leading modifiable risk factorforpoorbirthoutcomes”.