🌱 What is the reason for the ban?
The sale of vapes to minors is illegal in the UK. Yet, UK health professionals have warned that “youth vaping is fast becoming an epidemic among children”. The number of children using vapes has tripled in the past three years. It is now estimated that 9% of the 11 to 15-year-olds in the UK use vapes. Notably, the number of children admitted to UK hospitals due to vaping-related disorders is also growing. The colorful packaging of single-use vapes, and their sweet and fruity flavor options, are thought to attract children’s attention. The suggested ban is a “part of [the government’s] plans to tackle the rising number of young people taking up vaping”.
🌱 What measures are needed to make a ban efficient?
In December 2023, the World Health Organization “urged all governments to ban the sale of vapes or impose measures that would make them less appealing to the general population—banning flavors, limiting the concentration of nicotine, or taxing the product”. There is a worry that banning vapes could create a black-market for them, and that the products then sold illegally to users might be unsafe. Therefore, governments also need to take measures to tackle illicit sales.
🌱 What changes will there be in the UK?
The new rules entail “restrictions on vape flavours, a requirement for plain packaging, and changes to how vapes, or e-cigarettes, are displayed to make them less attractive to children”. Additional fines for sales to minors are also planned. The bill proposing the ban still needs to pass through parliament, but the ban is expected to come into force in early 2025. Notably, after the ban enters into force, retailers will still have six months’ time to comply.
🌱 How much e-waste is created through vapes?
Disposable vapes are wasteful by nature, and more than seven million are bought in the UK each week. Single-use vapes contain flammable lithium batteries, small circuit boards, plastic, and a variety of toxic or hazardous components. This makes them difficult and expensive to recycle properly. Moreover, their batteries can cause fires if they are disposed of improperly. Only 17% of users recycle their vapes correctly in shops or at recycling centers. Approximately five million disposable vapes are thrown away in the UK each week. Yet, vapes contain valuable materials such as copper and lithium. Over the course of a year, the amount of lithium disposed through single-use vapes in the UK would be enough to produce 5000 electric vehicle batteries.
Read more about the ban here:
- https://www.gov.uk/government/news/disposable-vapes-banned-to-protect-childrens-health
- https://www.local.gov.uk/disposable-vapes-faqs
- https://www.ucl.ac.uk/news/2024/jan/ban-disposable-vapes-would-affect-one-seven-young-adults
- https://www.ft.com/content/e27fc81b-ea1e-44fe-abe7-e208806127b5
- https://www.bbc.com/news/health-66784967
- https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-68123202
- https://time.com/6589776/u-k-banning-disposable-vapes/
- https://www.theguardian.com/society/2024/jan/29/disposable-vape-ban-loopholes
- https://www.theguardian.com/society/2024/jan/28/disposable-vapes-ban-uk-curb-youth-vaping
- https://www.theguardian.com/society/2023/sep/11/ban-on-single-use-vapes-in-uk-could-be-imminent
- https://www.timeout.com/uk/news/heres-why-loads-of-vapes-are-being-banned-in-the-uk-091223
- https://www.standard.co.uk/news/uk/disposable-vapes-banned-uk-b1106498.html
- https://www.cosmopolitan.com/uk/reports/a45097265/vape-ban-uk-law/
- https://apnews.com/article/uk-disposable-vape-ban-children-e9969f33db065004d45abf9180c0e8cf