Potential Ban On Disposable Vapes


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Potential Ban On Disposable Vapes
Potential Ban On Disposable Vapes

A potential ban on the sale of disposable vapes “can’t come soon enough” as Renfrewshire councillors rail against the “enormously addictive” products.

Elected members debated the health and environmental impacts of the single-use items, which they believe are intentionally marketed to be “attractive” to young people.

The subject was discussed at Tuesday’s communities and housing policy board, where representatives mulled over a consultation on actions the UK Government and devolved administrations are considering to tackle smoking and youth vaping.

Councillor Gillian Graham, Labour group education spokesperson, said: “Vape packaging and flavouring, in my opinion, is deliberately designed to be attractive to young people.

“When you look at bubble gum, fresh colours and blueberry, it’s designed to attract young people.”

The elected member for Johnstone North and the surrounding villages said vapes are “displayed prominently” in supermarkets and corner shops.

She added: “I don’t know if anybody else has noticed but you can hardly move for vape displays in corner shops nowadays. There must be a lot of money to be made.

“Anecdotally, we know that some pupils are using a single disposable vape every day. That’s equivalent to 20 cigarettes. It’s an enormous amount of nicotine in their system, enormously addictive.

“Pupils will vape in and around school grounds and we know the evidence of this because we see the disposable vapes littering the streets around the schools.

“Worst of all, they’re vaping between classes. That suggests they’re already addicted. The sooner the ban can come in – and also how vapes are displayed should be the same as cigarettes – it can’t come soon enough.”

The local authority is of the view the “preferred solution” would be to introduce a ban on consumer sale and supply of disposable vape products.

Last March, a motion in support of this position received unanimous agreement at a full council meeting.

Its services have reported that complaints claiming children are obtaining and using disposable vapes continue to increase.

“The penalties currently available are not sufficiently punitive as to discourage further sales,” it said in response to the consultation.

Councillor Emma Rodden, SNP education convener, who also represents Johnstone North and the surrounding villages, said: “As a former smoker myself – and it feels very good to be able to say that, eight months in – I absolutely see the value in vapes.

“I use a vape myself and I see the benefit as a smoking cessation tool, as it was originally developed.

“However, putting my other hat on, as a mother of a 13-year-old and soon-to-be 15-year-old, who seem to be the kind of target market accidentally, for these types of products, it concerns me greatly how prominently they are displayed, how readily available they are to young people and how trendy they seem to be for young people of my children’s age and a wee bit older.

“I think that absolutely anything that we can do to develop legislation which would curtail the marketing and availability to young people, who have never actually smoked and have no inclination to smoke but go straight to a nicotine addiction from a vape product, the more we can do the better.

“I’m very glad to see this consultation and I hope that the legislation comes to fruition in a way that will discourage and inform people about the dangers of vaping and nicotine use of any type.”


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