AFTER UK Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak announced a plan to ban disposable vapes, Tánaiste Micheál Martin said he would like to see it in Ireland.
A new law banning the sale of vapes to under-18s came into effect last month, but Minister Martin wants to go further.
“The old trick of the tobacco industry was that kids went to buy sweets and you had the cigarettes next to them - now you have the vapes with different flavours. Clearly, the objective is to get young people hooked and you have an industry for the next 50 years, without any proper due diligence on what goes into these products,” the Tánaiste said.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) has urged governments to treat vapes similar to tobacco and ban all flavours. The industry will find this problematic - British American Tobacco has set a target of half its revenues from ‘non-combustible products’ by 2035.
What are other countries doing?
By July, 2023, vapes were banned in 34 countries, according to the WHO, including Brazil, India, Thailand and Iran. But enforcing a ban is challenging as they frequently become available on the black market.
Other countries, including the U.S, allow vapes but regulate their use.
In Australia, vapes are available on prescription only. From March, it will be illegal to import any type of vape not approved as ‘therapeutic’ by the Australian medical regulator. It also plans to introduce a bill in 2025 banning domestic manufacturing or supply of non-therapeutic v
apes.
New Zealand has had an effective ban in place since August, with new rules to protect young people, including a lower level of nicotine, duller flavour names and a ban on opening vape shops in the vicinity of schools.
China, the world’s biggest producer of vapes, introduced a slew of laws in 2021 controlling their use, including banning the flavoured products that many of its manufacturers continue to send overseas. Not good enough for Chinese citizens but okay to bolster economic growth.
Vape manufacturers in the US must get authorisation from Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to sell their products. The FDA considers several factors like the potential benefits to help smokers quit. It has yet to approve a vape flavour other than tobacco. However, the laws are poorly enforced, with disposable products being widely available.
The UK is the latest country to announce a ban on disposable vapes. The new regulations will limit the variety of flavours, implement plain packaging, and alter the way vapes are presented in stores to minimise their appeal to children, according to the UK government.
Ireland is seeking people’s views ahead of further regulation. VOICE Ireland has been advocating strongly for this, promoting the campaign #BanDisposableVapes to make Ireland the first country in Europe to ban disposable vapes. A bill to ban the use of disposable vapes has been approved in France and could come into effect by September next year.
Germany also intends to take action, while some ecologists, including Steffi Lemke, the Green federal Minister for the Environment - have gone one step further, calling on the EU to ban them altogether.
How bad are disposable vapes for health?
The Royal College of Physicians of Ireland (RCPI) Faculty of Paediatrics, in a position paper last October, strongly supported laws to ban them to protect the health and wellbeing of children and young people, who are using them in alarming numbers. The environmental damage of vapes is also a concern.
Consultant in Paediatric Respiratory Medicine, Prof Des Cox, said vaping is harmful and has significant long-term risks for children and young people, whose brains and bodies are still developing.
Exposure of children and adolescents to nicotine can lead to long-term negative impacts on brain development as well as addiction. Aerosols in most vapes contain toxic substances, associated with increased risk of cardiovascular disease and lung disorders,” he warned.
“Potential negative health impacts of vapes include chest symptoms such as cough, wheezing, asthma exacerbations, but there is also significant risk of dependence and neurotoxic effects on the not fully matured brain.
Doctors need to be equipped to speak to their patients about these ill effects and provide clear guidance.
A key concern of paediatricians is the targeting of young people. “Clever campaigns on TikTok and Instagram, and the array of flavours and colours, are making disposable vapes more desirable for young people,” said Prof Cox. “We must adopt stronger legislation on the advertising and marketing of vapes and ban the use of flavours other than tobacco.”
A review by the Health Research Board supports this conclusion, finding that young people who had ever used a vape were three to five times more likely to start smoking compared to those who never used vapes.
“Effectively, what we are doing is creating the next generation of smokers,” said Prof Cox. “The argument is sometimes made that some people quit smoking using disposable vapes, but vapes are not licensed stop smoking medicines in Ireland and health claims that they are effective smoking cessation aids are not supported by the evidence.
If something is causing environmental damage and has serious health impacts for our young people, it seems an obvious solution to ban disposable vapes entirely.
There are proven smoking cessation aids that are more effective and have a lesser environmental impact.
The Tánaiste is right. Ireland has provided a global template for legislation around sale of tobacco and more recently alcohol, with significant benefits to public health.
Robust legislation around the sale of disposable vapes is overdue, aligned with legislation to limit vape flavours, and implement plain packaging, to minimise both environmental impacts as well as immediate and long-term health impacts to children.
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