UK announces ban on disposable vapes amid trend in youth vaping

In a step to curb the increasing trend of youth vaping, the United Kingdom’s government has announced its plan to ban disposable vape sales. This action aligns the U.K. with several other countries and American states that have implemented similar measures.

“We have teachers calling us, especially in the U.K., where you saw a 150% increase in the last three years of uptake of e-cigarettes by children,” Dr. Rüdiger Krech, director of Health Promotion at the World Health Organization said. “So, they call us to say children cannot stay a whole 45-minute lesson anymore because they need to step out to get e-cigarettes.”

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U.K. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s latest legislative push aims to reduce tobacco’s appeal to children, including banning flavored tobacco, enforcing plain packaging and implementing fines for shops selling illegally to minors.

Approximately 260 million disposable vapes were discarded last year, equivalent to the waste of 5,000 electric vehicle batteries, according to U.K. Environment Secretary Steve Barclay.

“Children shouldn’t be vaping, we don’t want them to get addicted, we still don’t understand the full long-term health impacts of vaping,” Sunak said. “So it is right we take strong action to stamp this out. That’s what we’re doing, banning disposable vapes, taking powers to go after the flavors, the appearance, the packaging, where vapes are displayed in stores.”

This initiative is integral to a broader strategy for achieving a smoke-free status by 2030. In the previous year, Sunak unveiled an ambitious tobacco control strategy that included proposed legislation to prohibit anyone born on or after Jan. 1, 2009, from purchasing tobacco products.

The U.K. aims to incrementally increase the legal age for purchasing tobacco each year, making it the second country to introduce such measures behind New Zealand.

This approach differs from New Zealand’s original plan, in which the country eventually reversed its decision due to concerns about illegal tobacco markets and increased thefts at tobacco stores.

Sunak acknowledged the potential disagreement with the policy but maintained its importance.

“I respect that some people will disagree with me on this, but again I think this is the right long-term thing for our country,” Sunak said. “Smoking causes 1 in 4 cancer deaths. It’s responsible for hospital admission every minute, and if we don’t do something about it, hundreds of thousands of people will die in the coming years.”

Parliament still needs to introduce and approve the ban. It is expected to pass, marking a significant step in the U.K.’s public health policy.