A British campaign group has warned that the country’s ban on single-use vapes – from this past Sunday – was unlikely to reduce the appeal of e-cigarettes to teenagers because, they said, re-usable models are so similar to disposables.
Hazel Cheeseman, chief executive of Action on Smoking and Health (Ash), welcomed the legislation as a step towards tougher regulations, but told the BBC it was unlikely the prohibition would make a dent on the products’ desirability, and that stronger action was necessary to make vaping less appealing to young people who had never smoked.
The government has previously said the ban would reduce the appeal of vapes to children – NHS research in 2024 showed that a quarter of 11- to 15-year-olds have tried vaping and nearly one in 10 of them “vape often”.
“Teenagers weren’t drawn to these products because you could throw them away,” Cheeseman said. “They were drawn to them because they were brightly coloured, cheap, and really available.”
Some reusable vapes have identical packaging to their single-use counterparts, are sold at the same price, and give customers little information about how to refill them, she added.
“The manufacturers are not making it easy for people to change their behaviour.”
‘Big environmental burden’
Despite her concerns about its effect on teen uptake, Cheeseman said the disposables ban would help ease the “big environmental burden” of vaping.
Almost 5m single-use vapes were thrown away each week in 2023, according to the Department for Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs (Defra).
As well as lithium-ion batteries, vapes contain circuit boards, which can leak toxic compounds if not disposed of properly.
A switch to reusable vapes, which can be recharged and refilled with e-liquid, would in theory allow users to keep e-cigarettes for longer without creating waste.
BBC article – Disposable vapes ban unlikely to reduce appeal, says campaigner (Open access)
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