New legislation tightens controls around vaping
Government approval has been given for stricter legislation around vaping products this week, signalling some wide-ranging measures to more strictly enforce behaviour around the increasingly- popular habit.
On Tuesday, approval was given for the publication of the Public Health (Tobacco Products and Nicotine Inhaling Products) Bill. This will ban the sale of vaping products, or any nicotine inhaling products, to children. They are currently legal for sale, however, some retailers opt not to sell them to under-18s but this is at their own discretion.
Furthermore, a ‘strict licensing system’ will be introduced for who can sell vaping products, as well as restrictions on the advertising of them near schools or on public transport.
Professor Emeritus of Chemistry at UCC, John Sodeau, commended the act, saying that the “e-cigarettes are guilty until proven innocent”.
“The Irish Government now have made a great step forward in improving our collective health by not providing answers to the above questions but instead rightly moving toward laws based on the premise that “e-cigarettes are guilty until proven innocent”.
Referencing the fact that research has not yet shown them to be indisputably harmful, he asked: “Do we really need to do more research on vaping? Either scientific or societal?”
“Think of it as like sneezing in the faces of the people around you. Is there any way that we would research the associated health dangers of doing that? No, because we know the outcomes from common sense and experience.”
Professor Sodeau said he would not advocate a ban on e-cigarettes, but would sanction them only on medical prescription.
‘Not Around Us’ is a campaign being run by Limerick City and County Council, aiming to de-normalise smoking by preventing children seeing people smoking, and by discouraging the practice in certain public areas. Originally launched in 2019, the initiative was hampered by Covid-19 and relaunched on Wednesday this week, on World No Tobacco Day.