United Kingdom to ban disposable vapes to hamper child use
The brightly colored packaging is a slick mix of ombre pink and lime green. The nicotine inside comes wreathed in a “strawberry kiwi” flavor.
Increasingly, plastic disposable vapes like this one are making their way into the hands of children, with 1 in 5 young people in Britain between the ages of 11 and 17 trying vaping last year, according to Action on Smoking and Health, an independent public health charity.
Soon, they will be banned in Britain, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said Monday, as he unveiled a package of measures to ban single-use vapes, restrict flavors, and regulate packaging and displays.
Britain is following several other nations, and a number of American states, that have already taken steps to curb underage vaping, as the colorful and trendy packaging and fruit or candy flavoring has proved appealing to teenagers and children.
Sunak said the ban, which is part of legislation that still has to be approved by Parliament, was intended to halt “one of the most worrying trends at the moment,” before it becomes “endemic.”
“The long-term impacts of vaping are unknown and the nicotine within them can be highly addictive, so while vaping can be a useful tool to help smokers quit, marketing vapes to children is not acceptable,” he said in a statement.
Andrea Leadsom, Britain's health minister, said the measures were intended to make sure that vapes were aimed at adults who were quitting smoking, rather than children.
“Nicotine is highly addictive — and so it is completely unacceptable that children are getting their hands on these products, many of which are undeniably designed to appeal to young people,” she said in a statement.
Recent surveys suggest a sharp uptick in the number of young people vaping in Britain. In 2023, 20.5% of children 11 to 17 had tried it, up from 15.8% in 2022 and 13.9% in 2020, according to data from Action on Smoking and Health, an independent public health charity.
The charity said the vast majority were using disposable, single-use vapes, and the most popular brand was Elf Bar, with fruit or soda flavors most used by that age group.
Disposable vapes, which contain lithium batteries, also damage the environment, with an estimated 5 million thrown away each week in Britain in 2023, up from 1.3 million a year earlier, according to government statistics.
Last week, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director-general of the World Health Organization, said he was concerned about growing vape use by young people, and he urged member states “to take swift action to counter this emerging threat.”
While it is not illegal for people under 18 to smoke or vape in Britain, it is illegal for those products to be sold to them. By banning disposable vapes, and restricting the flavors and packaging of refillable vapes, the government hopes to make it far less likely that young people will experiment with ecigarettes.